Paul Atkins was sworn into office late Monday as the 34th chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Atkins was confirmed by the Senate on April 9 by a 52-44 vote. He served as an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008.
“I am honored by the trust and confidence President Trump and the Senate have placed in me to lead the SEC,” Atkins said in a statement. “As I return to the SEC, I am pleased to join with my fellow Commissioners and the agency’s dedicated professionals to advance its mission to facilitate capital formation; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and protect investors.”
Atkins was most recently CEO of Patomak Global Partners, a company he founded in 2009.
As Atkins takes the helm of the SEC, industry watchers are speculating on whether the recent market volatility and tariff upheaval will force him to pivot from what's anticipated to be a deregulatory stance.
During his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on March 27, Atkins told lawmakers: “It’s time to reset priorities and return common sense to the SEC."
Other priorities, Atkins said, would be to "increase the morale of the agency, cure some of the dysfunction that’s there and get back to work — get back to basics."
Atkins also reenters the agency with members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency on site and a significantly slimmed-down SEC staff.
When asked during his nomination hearing before the Senate Banking Committee how he'd work with DOGE staff, Atkins said he "would definitely work with them as we’ll be looking at things going on at the commission right now to make sure that taxpayer funds are being used properly and that the work of the commission is being done effectively and efficiently."
Acting SEC Chairman Mark Uyeda said in a note to SEC staff that he looks forward to returning to his regular role as a commissioner.
"We have accomplished many things since January," Uyeda said. "We established the Crypto Task Force and withdrew enforcement actions in registration-only crypto cases. We replaced [crypto accounting regulation] SAB 121 and held public roundtables on what regulation of crypto should look like," along with providing updated FAQ guidance for the Advisers Act marketing rule and removing personally identifiable information from the Consolidated Audit Trail.
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