Mary Schapiro

WASHINGTON -- Mary Schapiro said Monday she will step down as chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission next month. Schapiro, who has headed the Wall Street watchdog since 2009, had been widely expected to depart the commission after the presidential election. She announced that her last day would be Dec. 14. “It has been an incredibly rewarding experience to work with so many dedicated SEC staff who strive every day to protect investors and ensure our markets operate with integrity,” Schapiro said in a written statement.

NEW YORK -- Mary Schapiro, who led the Securities and Exchange Commission in the four years following the financial crisis, has landed at a Washington consulting firm. Promontory Financial Group announced Schapiro's new role as managing director and chairman of its governance and markets practice division Tuesday. At the firm, she'll work with banking and financial services clients on governance and risk management. "This is important not only to companies, but also to our markets and to global prosperity," Schapiro said in a statement.

NEW YORK -- Mary Schapiro, who led the Securities and Exchange Commission in the four years following the financial crisis, has landed at a Washington consulting firm. Promontory Financial Group announced Schapiro's new role as managing director and chairman of its governance and markets practice division Tuesday. At the firm, she'll work with banking and financial services clients on governance and risk management. "This is important not only to companies, but also to our markets and to global prosperity," Schapiro said in a statement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's revolving door is spinning as feverishly as ever. Lawyers who leave the SEC for private law firms often immediately begin lobbying on behalf of their new corporate clients, frequently trying to weaken agency regulations or proposed reforms, according to a new report. The issue of top officials leaving the agency has been a concern for years in public-advocacy circles. It is common for young lawyers to put in a few years at the SEC or other government agencies before leaving for far more lucrative jobs in private industry or with high-powered law firms.

WASHINGTON - Mary L. Schapiro's departure as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission will leave the agency - at least temporarily - deadlocked as it continues to try to enact tough reforms on Wall Street. Schapiro, 57, said Monday that she will resign effective Dec. 14. President Obama quickly designated SEC Commissioner Elisse B. Walter as the agency's new chairwoman. Walter is not expected to radically change the regulator's agenda. But her move will leave the five-member SEC commission one person short - and effectively deadlocked on controversial issues such as Dodd-Frank financial reform, new regulations for money market mutual funds and a push to rein in high-speed trading.

Moving quickly to name a new head of an agency under fire for failing to detect an alleged $50-billion Ponzi scheme, President-elect Barack Obama has selected Mary Schapiro, an experienced Wall Street regulator, to be chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The selection of Schapiro, 53, a former SEC commissioner, was confirmed by a Democratic official Wednesday night. Obama is expected to announce her nomination at a news conference today in Chicago.

The Hunt brothers' attempt to corner the silver market was just being discovered in 1980 when Mary Schapiro was graduating from law school. The scandal changed her life. Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt lost about $2 billion when silver prices collapsed, and they eventually filed for bankruptcy and paid millions in fines to regulators and tax authorities.

Mary Schapiro, the new sheriff hired by the National Assn. of Securities Dealers to bring law and order to its Nasdaq Stock Market, watched in disbelief last May as the daily volume of tiny Comparator Systems Corp. stock soared to a record 170 million shares. Schapiro suspected a major penny-stock fraud.

NASD BLUE: Under regulation chief Mary Schapiro, the National Assn. of Securities Dealers is toughening its long-ridculed brokerage oversight. First of a series. BRAZILIAN ALOFT: The world's hottest plane builder is Embraer, a former state-owned firm in Brazil that is shaking up the booming market for smaller passenger jets.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Monday designated Elisse Walter as chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, but it's unclear if the Democratic commissioner will be the permanent replacement for outgoing Mary Schapiro. Walter, who has served on the SEC since July 2008, will take over the reins of the agency after Schapiro steps down on Dec. 14. Schapiro announced her resignation Monday. Obama thanked Schapiro for her "steadfast leadership. "  "When Mary agreed to serve nearly four years ago, she was fully aware of the difficulties facing the SEC and our economy as a whole," Obama said in a written statement.

WASHINGTON -- Mary Schapiro said Monday she will step down as chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission next month. Schapiro, who has headed the Wall Street watchdog since 2009, had been widely expected to depart the commission after the presidential election. She announced that her last day would be Dec. 14. “It has been an incredibly rewarding experience to work with so many dedicated SEC staff who strive every day to protect investors and ensure our markets operate with integrity,” Schapiro said in a written statement.

WASHINGTON - Mary L. Schapiro's departure as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission will leave the agency - at least temporarily - deadlocked as it continues to try to enact tough reforms on Wall Street. Schapiro, 57, said Monday that she will resign effective Dec. 14. President Obama quickly designated SEC Commissioner Elisse B. Walter as the agency's new chairwoman. Walter is not expected to radically change the regulator's agenda. But her move will leave the five-member SEC commission one person short - and effectively deadlocked on controversial issues such as Dodd-Frank financial reform, new regulations for money market mutual funds and a push to rein in high-speed trading.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Monday designated Elisse Walter as chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, but it's unclear if the Democratic commissioner will be the permanent replacement for outgoing Mary Schapiro. Walter, who has served on the SEC since July 2008, will take over the reins of the agency after Schapiro steps down on Dec. 14. Schapiro announced her resignation Monday. Obama thanked Schapiro for her "steadfast leadership. "  "When Mary agreed to serve nearly four years ago, she was fully aware of the difficulties facing the SEC and our economy as a whole," Obama said in a written statement.

Hedge funds may soon advertise to investors such as you. Securities regulations have barred hedge funds and other private investment vehicles from advertising and marketing to the general public for more than 30 years. But the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, enacted this year requires the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to ease the ban. Private offerings raised more than $1 trillion in 2011 -- about as much through offerings registered with the SEC, according to Mary Schapiro, the agency's chairman.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has declined to impose new regulations on money market mutual funds, which were exposed as vulnerable during the 2008 financial crisis. Panicked investors withdrew more than $300 million from the funds in one week in September 2008. This cast doubt on the security of the funds, which are not insured. SEC Chairwoman Mary L. Schapiro had lobbied for new regulations that would require the funds to keep cash reserves to cover large redemptions, and to let their prices fluctuate like other mutual funds.

Everyone seems to have the same list in mind of threats to our financial security: big, stupid banks; arrogant, dumb derivatives traders; a stock market operated entirely by, and for the benefit of, Cylons. So praise is due Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary L. Schapiro for focusing more attention on a greater threat nestled within the portfolios of millions of American investors. We're talking about money market funds. Small investors have gotten used to thinking of these popular mutual funds as if they're interchangeable with bank checking accounts, merely convenient parking lots for cash that might be needed at a moment's notice.

Brokerage regulator NASD on Thursday said Vice Chairwoman Mary Schapiro would succeed outgoing Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Glauber at the end of this year. Glauber, who became NASD's chairman in September 2001 after becoming CEO in November 2000, will remain in his positions until December. In recent months, speculation has centered on Schapiro, who joined the NASD in 1996, as the most likely candidate to succeed Glauber.

Hedge funds may soon advertise to investors such as you. Securities regulations have barred hedge funds and other private investment vehicles from advertising and marketing to the general public for more than 30 years. But the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, enacted this year requires the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to ease the ban. Private offerings raised more than $1 trillion in 2011 -- about as much through offerings registered with the SEC, according to Mary Schapiro, the agency's chairman.

WASHINGTON -- Regulators are looking into the $2-billion trading loss by JPMorgan Chase & Co., the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday as lawmakers and analysts said the bank's revelation would increase pressure for tighter financial rules. “I think it's safe to say that all the regulators are focused on this,” SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro told reporters after a speech at a Washington conference, according to news reports. She would not comment further.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will soon propose rules for revamping money-market mutual funds, pushing the options of a floating net asset value and capital buffers, SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro said. "Money-market funds, while perhaps not the cause of the downward spiral of events, certainly exacerbated the financial breakdown," Schapiro said Monday in remarks prepared for a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Assn. conference in New York. The SEC is pursuing "further structural reform" in the $2.6-trillion industry, she said.