By Chris Prentice and Douglas Gillison
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plans to remove the top leaders at regional offices across the country as part of its cost-cutting recommendations to the Trump administration, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The SEC on Friday told directors across its 10 regional offices that their roles will be eliminated as part of the plan the agency submits next month, the sources told Reuters.
The plan is the latest in a series of changes at the top U.S. markets regulator since Republicans took the helm at the commission and is part of a broader effort by Republican President Donald Trump, alongside special adviser and billionaire Elon Musk, to purge the federal workforce.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity as the discussions are not public. A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment.
The SEC, which oversees the more than $100 trillion U.S. capital markets, is under pressure from Republican President Donald Trump to fire staff and slash costs. Agency leaders have been told to submit recommendations for steep cuts to the administration. Some of the government’s cost-cutting efforts have involved the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and Musk.
The administration has already begun firing thousands of people across federal agencies. Musk on Saturday demanded employees across the federal government list their accomplishments for the last week or face firing. The SEC is embroiled in litigation against Musk for allegedly violating securities regulations.
Spokespeople for the White House did not respond to request for comment.
Many of the SEC’s staff are based in its headquarters in Washington, but the agency also has officials in offices from San Francisco to Miami who deal with examinations and investigations into public companies, brokers and investment advisers in their jurisdictions. They often lead agency investigations and lawsuits in high-profile matters.
“The regional leadership is what the home office has always looked to for making decisions about enforcement cases and exams. This is a difficult layer to remove,” said Andrew M. Calamari, a partner with Finn Dixon & Herling LLP and former director of the SEC’s New York office.
Eliminating the regional directors, a move that requires the vote of the three-person commission, is part of a larger cost-cutting effort. Reuters could not ascertain other aspects of the plan, and any taxpayer benefit from potential cuts is unclear as the SEC benefits from industry fees and is “deficit neutral,” according to the SEC’s latest budget report to Congress.
The SEC in June 2024 closed its regional hub in Salt Lake City. But one of the sources indicated there was no plan to shutter offices at this time.
On Thursday, senior employees across the agency joined a call during which leaders at the SEC said several of the agency’s staff were liaising with DOGE, according to one of the people and another source with knowledge of the discussion.
Divisions and offices have to report to the Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda with recommendations for reorganization on Tuesday, said the source with knowledge of the discussion. Uyeda is leading the agency alongside fellow Republican Hester Peirce and Democrat Caroline Crenshaw. Trump’s appointee to lead the agency Paul Atkins has yet to be confirmed.
Already, though, the Republicans at the SEC have begun shifting the agency’s focus. The regulator has scaled back and refocused its crypto enforcement unit, reassigned certain staff and tightened oversight of investigations.
Regarding changes to the agency’s crypto enforcement unit, Uyeda previously said in a statement the new unit would complement the agency’s efforts to create new policy for the sector and “allow the SEC to deploy enforcement resources judiciously.”
(Reporting by Chris Prentice in New York and Douglas Gillison in Washington Additional reporting by Lawrence Delevingne in Boston; editing by Megan Davies and Nick Zieminski)
