Kara Stein

In May 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Kara Marlene Stein to serve as a Democratic member of the Securities and Exchange Commission to succeed Elisse Walter.[1] Stein was confirmed by the Senate and started at the SEC in August 2013. Her five-year term expires June 5, 2017.

Before the SEC, Stein was an aide to Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island and helped write the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. Prior to her work in the Senate, Stein was an associate at the law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (WilmerHale).[2] She graduated from Yale University in 1986 and Yale Law School in 1991.[3]

Though soft-spoken in public, Stein has taken aggressive stances behind the scenes in pushing for strict, investor protection rules at SEC.[4]

Stein sparked a debate at the SEC and in Congress over the routine issuance of waivers to companies that have previously been sanctioned by prosecutors for financial misconduct.

In April 2014, Stein published a lengthy dissent to an SEC corporate waiver granted to the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which had previously been charged by the Justice Department for criminal violations.[5] Stein argued that the SEC waiver for RBS risked establishing a policy "that some firms are just too big to bar."

The dissent won applause from Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren.[6] [7] Again in an April 2015 speech, Warren criticized the SEC's policy for granting "Well-Known Seasoned Issuer" waivers, saying the agency misses an opportunity to deter bad behavior when it rubber-stamps these waivers.[8]

But Republicans at the SEC have bristled at the use of waivers as another enforcement tool.[9] Stein has subsequently dissented to SEC waivers granted to BNP Paribas, Citigroup and Oppenheimer & Co.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Protess, Ben (May 24, 2013). The New York Times http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/s-e-c-changes-continue-as-obama-names-2-senate-aides-for-posts/. Retrieved April 12, 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ↑ "SEC biography: Commissioner Kara M. Stein". www.sec.gov. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  3. ↑ Bass, Carole. "Kara Stein ’86, ’91JD: bank shot". www.yalealumnimagazine.com. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  4. ↑ Michaels, Dave (July 21, 2014). "Ghosts of 2008 Haunt SEC’s ‘Outsider’ Pushing Tough Rules". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Dissenting Statement in the Matter of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, plc, Regarding Order Under Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933, Granting a Waiver From Being an Ineligible Issuer". www.sec.gov. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Sen. Brown Urges SEC Chair to Stop Granting Waivers From Securities Law to Banks With Civil or Criminal Settlements or Enforcement Actions". www.brown.senate.gov. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Huffington Post: SEC Commissioner Issues Scathing Dissent From Ruling, Elizabeth Warren Echoes Concern". www.warren.senate.gov. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  8. ↑ Warren, Elizabeth. "The Unfinished Business of Financial Reform" (PDF). Warren.senate.gov. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  9. ↑ Gallagher, Daniel. "Statement on WKSI waivers". www.sec.gov. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  10. ↑ Stein, Kara. [Dissenting Statement In the Matter of Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. "Dissenting Statement In the Matter of Oppenheimer & Co., Inc."] Check |url= scheme (help). www.sec.gov. Retrieved April 12, 2015.