SEC boss names Wall Street critic Barbara Roper as senior adviser

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Securities and Exchange Commission boss Gary Gensler has called in a voice critic from Wall Street as a senior adviser, with the latest signal indicating he is considering a crackdown.

SEC Chairman Gensler on Wednesday night appointed longtime consumer advocate Barbara Roper as a senior advisor to the U.S. stock market regulator – saying she will focus on policy issues, monitoring of brokers, monitoring of investment advisers and reviews.

Roper, 65, has been fiercely critical of financial giants during his 35 years at the Consumer Federation of America, a Washington-based think tank and lobbying group that has taken credit for many policy changes, including the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

During the Trump era, she wrote numerous letters and editorials, accusing then SEC Chairman Jay Clayton – Gensler’s predecessor – of taking a laissez-faire approach to regulation that she described as “weak” and “undefined”.

Roper has been a fierce critic on Wall Street during his 35 years at the Consumer Federation of America. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag

In 2019, she criticized one of Clayton’s key reforms – an effort to overhaul the so-called ‘best interest settlement’ rule. The rule is intended to require brokers to disclose conflicts of interest when advising clients on financial decisions. Dealers often present themselves as financial advisers, but legally they are not owed the same fiduciary duty as registered investment advisers.

Barbara Roper is currently Director of Investor Protection for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) .CFA

Clayton said he wanted his reviews to increase the broker’s transparency with clients. But Roper argued that the reforms were minimal and did not go far enough. In April, she wrote a letter to Gensler claiming the rule should require brokers to meet much higher standards.

In this most recent administration, they’ve been prepared to make some truly anti-investor deregulation proposals, ”Roper said last year. She added that under Biden, she would like the SEC to be “aggressive” and push “investor-friendly priorities” forward.

Roper has previously served on advisory committees of the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

“Barb is a champion for investors and will provide valuable advice on behalf of the American public,” Gensler said in a statement. “I have had the pleasure of working closely with her on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the critical market reforms of the Dodd-Frank Act, and I am delighted to be working with her again at the SEC.”

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