Dan Berkovitz to Become SEC’s New General Counsel Under Gensler

(Bloomberg) -- Dan Berkovitz will join the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as the Wall Street regulator’s general counsel in November.

Berkovitz, who previously said he plans to leave his seat on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission next month, will replace John Coates, who had been serving as the SEC’s top lawyer, the agency said in a statement Tuesday. Since September 2018, Berkovitz has been serving as a Democratic CFTC commissioner and earlier in his career was the derivatives regulator’s general counsel.

Gary Gensler, who took over as SEC chairman in April, relied on Berkovitz’s advice while leading the CFTC during the Obama administration as the agency wrote rules to regulate the swaps market following the 2008 financial crisis. At the SEC, Gensler has also laid out an ambitious agenda that includes writing dozens of new rules, as well as plans to clamp down on cryptocurrency trading. 

As a CFTC commissioner, Berkovitz recently has raised concerns over a fast-growing corner of crypto known as DeFi, or decentralized finance. 

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