Keeping Up With Shifting SEC Priorities

The first half of 2025 brought seismic shifts in leadership, structure, procedures and priorities at the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the appointment of the new Chairman, Paul S. Atkins, and new Director of the Division of Enforcement, Judge Margaret Ryan; reorganization under new deputy enforcement directors for three newly created regions; a 15% reduction in workforce; elimination of the delegation of authority that empowered the SEC’s enforcement staff to issue subpoenas in investigations; and a “major course correction” related to the SEC’s regulatory priorities, to name a few. Many attribute these developments to the SEC’s effort to align with the Trump Administration’s policy initiatives and objectives. Take, for example, the SEC’s withdrawal of 14 major rule proposals issued by the previous Administration. The abandoned rules included proposals that would have increased disclosure requirements related to ESG-related investments, required funds to tighten up their cybersecurity risk management practices, and placed additional guardrails on the treatment of customer cryptocurrency assets — hardly priorities of the current Administration. The SEC has characterized this sea change as a return to the SEC’s “roots of promoting, rather than stifling, innovation.”