The U.S. Senate confirmed lawyer Jay Clayton to run the Securities and Exchange commission, President Donald Trump’s first major Wall Street regulator to take office as the administration pushes to roll back financial regulations.

Clayton, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell whose clients included Goldman Sachs Group Inc., won approval Tuesday in a 61 to 37 vote.

Clayton, 50, will take office as Trump has repeatedly called for gutting the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul. Clayton said in his confirmation hearing that he wants to determine whether rules linked to Dodd-Frank are achieving their objectives.

“Jay Clayton will lead the SEC at a pivotal time,” said Annette Nazareth, a former SEC commissioner who is now a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell in Washington. “A key focus will be on re-balancing regulation in a post-Dodd-Frank era.”

With Congress bogged down on other contentious issues and little consensus about rewriting Dodd-Frank, the Trump administration will need to rely on the SEC and other Wall Street regulators to undo existing rules.

While Trump has signed several executive orders aimed at easing financial rules, policy changes haven’t advanced due to vacancies at the SEC and other agencies, and because of appointees of former President Barack Obama, who remain on the job.

Read more: Empty Seats at Regulators Hold Back Trump Bid to Undo Dodd-Frank

At the SEC, rule-writing has largely been on hold since Mary Jo White stepped down as chair in January. Traders, banks and their lobbyists will closely watch early moves by Clayton, the first high-level Trump pick to take over a financial regulator, as a bell-weather during the Trump presidency.

Clayton, a political independent, has been tight-lipped about the specifics of his agenda. He has said he wants to make it more appealing for companies to sell shares to the public.

During his March Senate confirmation hearing, Clayton said Dodd-Frank era rules should be reviewed to see if they’ve been effective and that an SEC analysis of market structure should continue. He also pledged to be tough on corporate misdeeds amid criticism from Democrats that his career representing banks and hedge funds could lead to conflicts of interest.

First « 1 2 » Next