US SEC Commissioner Lizárraga Announces Exit Amid Overhaul

• SEC Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga would resign on January 17th.
• With his departure, the panel will have a smaller Democratic presence.

Another high-ranking US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officer has announced their impending resignation, drastically altering the trajectory of the agency.

A statement made on November 22nd states that SEC Commissioner Jaime Lizárraga would resign on January 17th, which is less than three years after taking the oath of office. The desire to devote more time to Lizárraga’s wife, who is allegedly fighting cancer, was the driving force for his departure.

Starting in the 1990s, he was a deputy director of legislative affairs at the SEC, where he started his career. After that, from 2011 to July 2022, Lizárraga was a senior advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. During that time, he was instrumental in shaping financial legislation, such as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

New Era for the Agency

Disclosures of climate-related risks, cybersecurity threats, and data breaches were all part of Lizárraga’s regulatory responsibilities as a commissioner. Following the announcement of SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s impending resignation disclosed on November 21st, Lizárraga’s departure follows suit. With his departure, the panel will have a smaller Democratic presence in the days leading up to President-elect Trump’s inauguration in January.

These major leadership changes at the SEC portend a new era for the agency, one in which it may take a different approach to important regulatory issues like digital assets.

The cryptocurrency business was subject to close examination and stringent regulation during Gensler’s tenure at the SEC, mostly in the form of enforcement proceedings. To win over crypto supporters, Trump threatened to “fire” Gensler on the first day in office at a speech he gave in July at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. 

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