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Mary Schapiro, Chair of US Securities & Exchange Commission

Tuesday 4 January 2011 - by Will Henley

Mary Schapiro, Chair, US Securities and Exchange Commission
 The first female chairman of the SEC has made short work of 2010, suing a slew of Wall Street banks and introducing tough new regulations. She comes 24th in the GFS Power 50.

Schapiro took over a beleaguered agency in 2009, pursued by those who accused it of failing to prevent the 2008 banking crisis and Bernie Madoff's massive ponzi scheme fraud.

The veteran regulator has responded by trying to restore the SEC's reputation as a defender of the rights of investors.

Over the past 12 months, Schapiro has had to contend with a radically shifting financial landscape as the Dodd-Frank Bill pinged around Congress and finally made it to the statute books in July. She was a regular on Capitol Hill and has faced many a grilling by Congress.

Under the chairman's watch, the SEC has this year honed in on dark pool alternative trading systems and introduced rules targeting window dressing. It has also tightened reporting requirements and also boosted incentives for whistleblowers.

A major challenge came in the form of the May "flash crash" and Schapiro was quick to order a thorough investigation of its roots.


2010 however may be best remembered as the year that Schapiro's beefed up enforcement division really went for the jugular of Wall Street's big beasts.

In January, the agency sued Bank of America over its takeover of Merrill Lynch. In April it launched a high-profile action against Goldman Sachs. And in August it even sued the state of New Jersey.

Schapiro is a familiar face in Washington and New York having served as chief executive of the non-governmental Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the nineties.

She served as a regulator under Presidents Bill Clinton and George H W Bush and Ronald Reagan and briefly held the post of acting SEC chairman in 1993.

The 55-year-old took a major drop in salary to take on the chairmanship - from earning more than $2m to a meagre $160,000.

Schapiro is a vocal member of the International Organization of Securities Commission (IOSCO), herself chairing the body between 2002 and 2006.

Learn more about the GFS Power 50, a countdown of the most influential people in worldwide financial regulation in 2010.


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