New S.E.C. Chairman Pledges to Look After Ordinary Investors
And he said he agreed with Ms. White’s assessment in that speech that the agency “is today a stronger protector of investors than ever before.”
In his speech, Mr. Clayton outlined a number of principles that he said would guide his stewardship of the agency.
But in a lunchtime speech to the Economic Club of New York at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, Mr. Clayton, who is known as Jay, tried
to balance his concern for investor protection with reducing regulatory burdens that deter private companies from going public.
But he added, “We should be doing what we can to fight corruption.”
chairman opened his remarks with an approving nod to his predecessor, Mary Jo White, who, like Mr. Clayton,
had come to the commission from a large law firm, in Ms. White’s case, Debevoise & Plimpton.
Mr. Clayton noted that Ms. White’s last public speech as S. E.C.
Critics said Mr. Clayton’s professional experience doing corporate work for big Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs Group
and Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, might cause him to put the interests of corporate America before those of ordinary investors.
