The SEC is on its way to becoming a lean, mean regulatory machine. A former Fidelity executive will take leadership of a newly formed risk assesment office, the SEC announced on Thursday.

As the head of the Office of Risk Assessment, Charles Fiskin, former vice president of Firmwide Risk at Fidelity, will direct a team of 15 and report directly to Chairman William Donaldson.

With Fishkin's hiring, it appears the agency is turning a critical eye inward. The goal of the ORA is to improve operations internally and externally.

Fishkin and the ORA's goals are wide-ranging: "ORA will coordinate the internal risk teams to improve the agency’s ability to anticipate potential problem areas across the securities industry, and will focus on early identification of new or resurgent forms of fraud and illegal or questionable activities," stated the agency.

In simple language, spokesman Matthew Well says Fishkin will lead the group in examining "mundane" internal matters, such as administrative problems, to identifying external market trends and effectively targeting problems.

Donaldson first spoke about the risk assessment initiative last year, after reviewing operations at the SEC. Since then, the agency has interviewed more than 300 people in order to staff the team, said Well.

Well characterized the office as a "way of breaking down divisional barriers." Divisional teams will meet monthly with the ORA. Currently three of the so-called "embedded" teams have been formed, with plans for two more underway, said Well.

"The Office of Risk Assessment…will help the...have the information necessary to make better, more informed decisions and to proactively adjust operations, resources, and methods of oversight to address new challenges and prevent problems," stated Donaldson. 

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