The US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, could be set for a radical shift in priorities after the appointment of Congressman Christopher Cox as chairman.
President Bush formally nominated Mr Cox, a Californian Republican, on Thursday. The move is expected to result in the SEC moving on from its two-year focus on new regulation and stronger enforcement.
Mr Cox, aged 52, has taken pro-business positions on many issues since he entered Congress in 1988. He sponsored legislation that curtailed plaintiffs' right to bring lawsuits alleging securities violations and opposed a regulatory drive to treat stock options as expenses, fighting on the side of the technology firms that constitute much of his Orange County constituency.
Among his biggest financial supporters during 16 years in Congress have been law firms including Latham & Watkins LLP and the largest accounting firms, including Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG.
Securities Industry Association leaders said they saw the Cox nomination as an opportunity for the agency to "reassess burdensome, duplicative, costly" regulations.
If confirmed by the Senate, Mr Cox - low-key, cerebral and a classically conservative Republican - would replace William H Donaldson, who has presided over a stormy two years at the agency.
Donaldson (74) surprised Wall Street by leading an aggressive rule-making campaign that caused a deep split with his fellow two Republicans on the five-member SEC panel and triggered accusations from business interests that the agency was going too far with re-regulation.
If Cox takes a more pro-business approach at the commission, he and the other two Republicans, Paul S. Atkins and Cynthia A Glassman, conceivably could reverse some of the controversial reforms supported by Donaldson. - (LA Times - Washington Post)
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