SEC As Cyber Cop

During his first two years as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler has led the agency down a path of aggressive enforcement and proposed an ambitious rulemaking agenda. The Chair's unyielding enforcement agenda has resulted in, among other things, record levels of monetary relief and industry sweeps that have significantly impacted behavior of Wall Street.

But when historians write the book on the Gensler-era, we believe that, although the Chair will certainly be remembered for the amount and number of penalties that his staff imposed, the Chair's legacy will ultimately be defined by his initiatives to expand the type of conduct that the SEC polices. A prime example of this is the SEC's efforts to serve as "Cyber Cop" on the Wall Street beat.