Mark Uyeda, Trump’s choice for acting chairman of the SEC, has a history of voting against enforcement, data collection and ESG measures, often the sole opposition to his fellow commissioners’ votes.
The Republican commissioner is expected to be in place before Trump’s permanent nomination Paul Atkins is confirmed by the Senate.
Atkins was appointed to the SEC in 2002 under the George Bush administration, and served as a commissioner until 2008. He has been vocal in his dislike of regulation via enforcement and large corporate fines, and has opposed the SEC Whistleblower Programme as a system that “creates perverse incentives”. He is expected to begin his term as chair this summer.
Uyeda has been a commissioner at the SEC since June 2022, and worked with senior leadership at the US Department of the Treasury and the US Department of Labour during Trump’s first term.
Over 2024, Uyeda opposed motions calling for stricter action around data management, special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) regulation and enhanced climate-related disclosures. During the year, he did not approve approximately 13% of the decisions, orders, rules and similar actions considered by the commission. A further 5% were approved with exceptions.
Notable examples include Uyeda’s opposition to recordkeeping and off-channel communication fines against 26 firms made by the SEC last August, totalling US$392.75 million.
READ MORE: Firms hit with CFTC, SEC recordkeeping and communication failure fines
In December, alongside fellow Trump-appointee Hester Peirce, he argued that the Commission’s plans to introduce a consolidated audit trail (CAT) – designed to allow regulatory tracking of national market securities in US markets – was “a system that one would expect to find in a dystopian surveillance state, not the shining beacon for liberty and the free world.”
The duo added: “The commission’s apparent insatiable appetite to obtain and store more and more surveillance data in its systems grows with each rulemaking—with little consideration on issues such as cost and purpose.”
In an earlier statement opposing enhanced and standardised climate-related disclosures for investors, Uyeda stressed his opinion that the commission should not be involved in social issues.
He said: “The commission ventured outside of its lane and set a precedent for using its disclosure regime as a means for driving social change. If left unchecked, we may see further misuse of the Commission’s rules for political and social issues and an erosion of the agency’s reputation as an independent financial regulator.”
Uyeda’s approach aligns with Trump’s plans to move away from disclosure regimes and actions seen as restrictive to economic growth.
Earlier in his career Uyeda was chief advisor to the Californian securities regulator, the Corporations Commissioner, and spent a number of years as a corporate and securities attorney in Washington DC and Los Angeles.
