Article Originally Published: Roll Call

Senate Banking ranking member Tim Scott, R-S.C., didn’t waste any time Wednesday afternoon praising Paul Atkins after President-elect Donald Trump tapped Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Atkins, a former SEC commissioner, would take over from SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who said last month that he will step down when Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Gensler, who was appointed by President Joe Biden and assumed office in April 2021, has been excoriated by Republicans and many financial firms and trade groups for being too aggressive in pursuing an expansive regulatory agenda.

“Paul Atkins has the experience necessary to lead the agency out of Gary Gensler’s disastrous tenure and help revitalize the U.S. capital markets system — which is critical to our economic growth, job creation, and innovation,” Scott said in a statement issued within 30 minutes of Trump’s announcement of his choice on the Truth Social platform.

“I look forward to working with him to increase access to capital for entrepreneurs, open our capital markets to all Americans, and create a regulatory environment for digital assets that encourages innovation here in the United States, not overseas,” Scott said.

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“Paul Atkins is not fiduciary friendly,” Knut Rostad, president of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, wrote in an email. “Yet, he could serve retail investors well if he actually made disclosure clear, concise and meaningful.”