(Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler will head the team that is reviewing the Federal Reserve, and banking and securities regulators for Joe Biden’s presidential transition, according to a transition official.
Gensler has deep experience in finance, both as a watchdog and an executive. He is a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner who joined President Bill Clinton’s Treasury Department. Gensler was later appointed CFTC chairman by President Barack Obama.
His role in Biden’s transition might make some on Wall Street uneasy. When Gensler led the CFTC, he implemented new rules that made him a scourge of banks’ lucrative swaps-trading desks. He also pushed investigations into the manipulation of benchmark interest rates that resulted in firms paying billions of dollars in penalties.
While the Fed is the U.S.’s preeminent bank regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also oversee the industry. The Securities and Exchange Commission is the main watchdog for securities markets.
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