Robinhood chief legal officer would be a leading contender for SEC chairman if Trump wins

Odaily Odaily News: A dozen former senior regulators, lobbyists and securities lawyers said that if Donald Trump wins the presidency again, Robinhood Chief Legal Officer Dan Gallagher will be a candidate for Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It is not clear whether Gallagher wants to leave Robinhood. Gallagher said he loves his job and "I am honored to be mentioned in the discussion about who will be the next SEC Chairman." But there is no doubt that Gallagher has obvious objections to the direction of the SEC. He said that if he had been chairman in the past few years, there would have been tailor-made rules long ago, as the industry has long sought, to provide cryptocurrency exchanges and brokers with "at least a path forward for a basic registration system." Even so, Gallagher believes that legislation is still needed. Gallagher was a former commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is known for his affability and political talent. Other possible candidates for SEC chairman circulating on Wall Street under the Trump administration include former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Chris Giancarlo, former SEC General Counsel Robert Stebbins, current partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher law firm, and current SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce. However, the report said that for some Republicans, whether Gallagher could become chairman was always a question of when, not if.