SEC Nominee Promises Less Adversarial Agency

The Bush administration’s pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission promised on Thursday to make the investor protection agency more responsive and less adversarial to the industries it oversees.

Harvey Pitt, in a confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, said he wants a top-to-bottom review of the 70-year-old securities laws that he said are as confusing as tax laws.

“I would like the SEC to lead a review of the requirements it administers, and the regulations it imposes, to be certain they are sound, reasonable, cost effective and promote competition,” said Pitt, who is expected to be approved in a later Senate vote.

Before being nominated by President Bush, Pitt was a private securities lawyer. He also holds financial interests in companies that he would now regulate, raising questions about his impartiality.

Pitt, 56, sought to allay those concerns by telling senators he plans to get rid of all his securities, a move that goes beyond federal ethics laws.

Pitt also said he would take the helm of the SEC with no preconceived intentions about the agency’s fair disclosure rule, which he had problems with when he was in private practice.