It sounds like Biden's Wall Street sheriff plans to stick around next year if the President wins reelection ... and perhaps even if he doesn't.

Gary Gensler U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair

Gary Gensler, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), offered those hints this morning on the main stage at the 2024 ICI Leadership Summit at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C. Eric Pan, CEO of the Investment Company Institute (ICI), was doing a "fireside chat" with Gensler.

Near the end of the on-stage interview, as Pan thanked Gensler for being "a really good sport coming here today and spending time" at the conference, Gensler interrupted.

"Are you going to invite me next year?" Gensler asked.

"We will invite you over even after you leave the SEC," Pan replied. "But you have an open invitation."

Gensler turned to the audience and smiled.

"Oh, wait a minute!" Gensler said, as the audience laughed.

"You are one day leaving the SEC?" Pan asked, to more audience laughter.

"My term is 'til June 6," Gensler replied, before the discussion veered off onto a tangent about the mutual fund industry's growth and about the SEC's impending 90th birthday (coming up on June 6, 2024) and the mutual fund industry's centennial (the first open-end mutual fund's 100th birthday was back in March).

Then Gensler returned to the subject of his SEC tenure and of returning to speak at future ICI Leadership Summits.

"Wow, I'm going to get an invite after!" Gensler said, then clarified. "My term is through 6/6 of '26."

Gensler, a former CFTC chair and 18-year Goldman Sachs veteran, was appointed as SEC chair three years ago and sworn in on April 17, 2021. He finished out a prior commissioner's term that June and began his own five-year term.

With President Biden running for reelection this November against ex-President Trump, there could be an administration change in January 2025. SEC chairs are designated by the President, and past SEC chairs typically leave the regulatory agency when (or before) a President leaves office, even before a successor chair has been chosen, appointed, nominated, and confirmed. From Gensler's remarks, it sounds like he plans to stick, at least if Biden has a second term, until 2026. 

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