The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to remove regional office directors across the country to cut costs, according to Reuters.
The SEC on Friday told directors across its 10 regional offices that their roles will be eliminated as part of the cost-cutting plan the agency submits next month, sources told the news service.
The agency is under pressure from President Donald Trump to fire staff and slash costs, Reuters said, with some of the government's cost-cutting efforts involving the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, headed by Elon Musk.
"Eliminating the regional directors, a move that requires the vote of the three-person commission, is part of a larger cost-cutting effort," Reuters said.
Getting rid of regional directors, however, is "more of an SEC plan, not really a DOGE plan," Igor Rosenblit, managing partner at Iron Road Partners, a risk management consultancy, told ThinkAdvisor Tuesday.
Last June, the SEC announced that it would close its Salt Lake Regional Office later in 2024, reducing its regional footprint from 11 offices to 10.
The Salt Lake office "has long been the SEC's smallest regional office and recently has experienced significant attrition," the agency said then.
The SEC "considered its budget and organizational efficiency" in deciding to close the office. The agency said then that it has no plans to close other regional offices.
Trump Order on Independent Agencies
On Feb. 18, Trump issued an executive order applicable to independent agencies like the SEC, which says that draft regulations must be submitted to the White House for review before publication and that the agencies must consult with the Trump administration on their priorities and strategic plans.
The independent agencies "have exercised enormous power" without presidential oversight, the order states.
Rosenblit, a former SEC staffer, said that Trump's order "seemed to take all the independence off the table" from the SEC and other independent agencies, "which seemed to go beyond what Congress intended to do and is a dangerous precedent to me."
The order, Rosenblit continued, "could slow down the rulemaking process" and "further erode morale" at the agency.
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