Bart Chilton, the outspoken regulator whose colorful commentary on Wall Street positioned him as a fierce critic of the industry he helped oversee, announced on Tuesday that he was leaving his post at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a move that startled his colleagues and raised questions about the future of the agency.
Mr. Chilton’s surprise exit from the C.F.T.C., where he has served as the agency’s most liberal commissioner since 2007, coincided with the agency’s decision to propose a rule that he long championed. His announcement came at a meeting in Washington, where the agency was voting on so-called position limits. The proposal would rein in speculative commodities trading, which has been blamed for pinching consumers at the gas pump and the grocery store.
True to his knack for blending arcane financial minutiae with poetic inflections and music lyrics â€" his speeches are sprinkled with references to the likes of Bruce Springsteen to the Beatles â€" Mr. Chilton on Tuesday captured the moment with a song.
“I’m reminded of the old Etta James song, “At Last,†said Mr. Chilton, one of the agency’s three Democratic members. “At last, we’ve got this rule here,†and at last, he would be leaving the C.F.T.C.
Mr. Chilton, whose departure would cap nearly three decades of government service, explained that he recently formalized his decision in a letter to President Obama.
While he did not specify a reason for the departure, a specific departure date or his next role. His second term as a commissioner technically ended in April and formally will conclude in December 2014.
The White House has not yet renominated him, and commissioners rarely serve three terms. Further complicating matters, he already split his time between Washington and his home in Arkansas.
His departure creates an opening at an agency that is already shorthanded. Jill Sommers, a Republican commissioner, recently left. David Meister â€" the enforcement chief who brought actions against JPMorgan Chase and Jon S. Corzine, the former top executive of the bankrupt brokerage firm MF Global â€" departed the agency last week. And Gary Gensler, the agency’s chairman, will exit at the end of the year when his term officially ends.
If Mr. Chilton and Mr. Gensler leave before their replacements are picked, the five-member agency will be down to just two commissioners: one Democrat, Mark Wetjen, and one Republican, Scott O’Malia.
The White House is narrowing potential replacements for Mr. Gensler, according to people briefed on the matter. Timothy G. Massad, a former assistant secretary of the Treasury, is considered a leading candidate for the job.
But it is is unclear who might fill Mr. Chilton’s spot, and whether the White House will pick someone as outspoken as he.
An Indiana native and longtime creature of Capitol Hill, Mr. Chilton worked for three different members of Congress. He later became a senior adviser to then-Senator Tom Daschle when he was the Democratic leader of the Senate.
Mr. Chilton arrived at the trading commission in 2007, when it was regarded as something of a regulatory backwater. But in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the agency inherited broad new authority under the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the law, the agency’s reach encompassed the $40 trillion futures business as well as the dark corners of the $300 trillion derivatives market that were at the center of the financial crisis.
Mr. Chilton, an unapologetic supporter of Dodd-Frank, injected a populist tone to the agency’s deliberations. He also nudged his fellow Democratic commissioners to tighten rules the agency was adopting under the 2010 law.
The position limits proposal was one such rule. Dismissing Wall Street’s concerns as “trying to dance on the head of a legal pin,†Mr. Chilton demanded that the agency complete the rule. And when a federal judge struck down he rule last year, Mr. Chilton urged colleagues to propose a new version, leading to the vote on Tuesday.
The agency approved the new proposal in a 3-1 vote, with Mr. O’Malia voting against it. The proposal is now open for public comment.
Mr. Chilton, who embraced his role as the darling of consumer groups and the ire of Wall Street, has typically saved his harshest rebukes for the firms he regulated. When MF Global collapsed in 2009 and more than $1 billion in customer money disappeared, for example, he delcared: “If they do the crime, they shouldn’t just pay a fine; they should do the time.†He likened the search for the missing money to the “magical mystery tour,†a reference to the Beatles album and the movie.
Mr. Chilton at times turned the anger on his own colleagues. He dismissed the agency’s $1.5 million fine of Goldman Sachs last year “puny†and a “slap on the wrist.â€
His announcement on Tuesday appeared to catch colleagues off guard.
“I’m surprised by the news and disappointed,†Mr. Wetjen said.
Mr. Gensler, calling Mr. Chilton “a true public servant,†urged him to stay. “I just still want to go at you a little bit longer about whether this is your last meeting,†Mr. Gensler said, adding that “we’ll continue those conversations in private.â€
Mr. Chilton, who has written a book on Ponzi schemes and is currently writing another, has signaled grander ambitions. Author. Public speaker. Poet?
Mr. Chilton has waxed poetic on everything from position limits to delays in Dodd-Frank. The latter topic led him to invoke, of all things, Pink Floyd lyrics. (“Can’t keep my eyes from the circling skies/Tongue-tied and twisted; just an earthbound misfit, I.â€)
“The message in the metaphor is that we really are boarding, implementing that is, and ready for regulatory takeoff of Dodd-Frank,†he said. “We’ve been waiting around the gate area, eating Cinnabons and watching cable news since July of 2010,†when the law was enacted.
Mr. Chilton’s departure, like many of his acts as a regulator, was unusual. Government officials typically telegraph their departure and land at large law firms or lobbying shops.
But, as one official said on Tuesday, “Bart wouldn’t do anything that would be considered close to conventional.â€
