Market Structure
The GameStop saga has made lawmakers wake up to the inner-workings of the stock market. Practices like off-exchange trading and Robinhood and other brokers selling their customers’ orders to so-called market makers like Citadel Securities are getting unprecedented attention on Capitol Hill.
Short-selling has also come under fire after it emerged that hedge funds making bearish bets had borrowed more than 100% of GameStop’s outstanding shares. In the face of all that complexity, lawmakers will want to know how Gensler plans to ensure that markets are fair for average Americans.
Private Equity
Among the Banking Committee Democrats who have most relished going after private equity are Chairman Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Warren of Massachusetts.
Warren introduced the “Stop Wall Street Looting Act” in 2019 calling for new rules for buyout firms, and she made the industry’s treatment of workers a centerpiece of her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign. She and Brown have said they will continue to press the issue and have ideas for how Gensler can use the SEC to add new oversight. Giving impetus to their plans is a successful push by private-equity firms during the Trump administration to be included as an investment option in corporate retirement saving plans.
Enforcement
Wall Street could soon find itself subject to lots more investigations launched by the CFPB, which was created to crack down on industry abuses that Democrats argue spurred the 2008 financial crisis. Beyond big banks, the agency under Chopra may also focus on payday lenders, student loan providers and on issues tied to the retail trading boom.
At the SEC, wielding the agency’s powers to probe and sanction companies is where Gensler can make his biggest impact. A high-profile case against a major bank or hedge fund can ripple through the finance industry, deterring other firms from engaging in similar conduct. During the Trump era, busting Wall Street titans was rarely a priority, something progressives expect Gensler to change quickly.
Crypto
Bitcoin has skyrocketed more than 400% in the past year and Coinbase, a trading platform used by millions American, is on the cusp of one of the biggest initial public offerings in years. Yet, despite all the buzz, cryptocurrencies are still a big question mark for Wall Street. Industry backers say that an impediment to broad adoption is a clear legal framework and a lack of regulatory clarity from the SEC.
It’ll probably fall largely on Gensler to determine how to regulate the industry. Thorny topics he will likely have to deal with include whether to approve a crypto based exchange-traded fund, and how aggressively to pursue a high-profile lawsuit the SEC filed last year against Ripple Labs Inc. for allegedly misleading investors by selling more than $1 billion of virtual tokens without registering them with the regulator.
Climate Change
Progressives want Biden’s financial regulators to play a crucial role in addressing climate change, including by pressing companies to reveal more about how global warming affects their bottom lines. Democrats also want industry watchdogs to combat inequality by implementing policies that narrow social and economic gaps.
At Tuesday’s hearing, such objectives are expected to get lots of attention from Republicans, who argue that securities laws and corporate disclosures should not be used to push what they consider to be political agendas.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.