The Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday approved the nomination of Timothy G. Massad, a former corporate lawyer, as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, one of Wall Street’s hardest hitting watchdogs.
The Senate committee also approved the nominations of Sharon Y. Bowen and J. Christopher Giancarlo as commissioners. The three now await full confirmation from the Senate.
If confirmed, Mr. Massad would succeed Gary S. Gensler, who became chairman of the agency after the financial crisis and who was given the task of establishing tougher rules on derivatives and futures as part of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law. For Mr. Massad, the focus will be on enforcing these new rules.
“Today, the C.F.T.C.’s role is even more important because it has the responsibility to bring much-needed regulation to the markets for over-the-counter derivatives,†Mr. Massad said at a committee hearing a month ago.
The agency sharpened its teeth during Mr. Gensler’s tenure. Under Dodd-Frank, the C.F.T.C’s purview was expanded from the $40 trillion futures industry to the $400 trillion derivatives market. Under its new mandate, the agency issued fines to big financial institutions like Barclays, UBS and JPMorgan Chase.
The three new commissioners all bring years of Wall Street experience to their posts. Mr. Massad was a lawyer at Cravath & Swain for more than two decades before he went on to become an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department in charge of winding down the the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Mr. Giancarlo, who would fill the Republican seat left by Jill E. Sommers, is a senior executive of the interdealer broker GFI Group. He has promised to resign from GFI if confirmed
Ms. Bowen, who would succeed the agency’s most liberal and outspoken member, Bart Chilton, is a former securities lawyer at Latham & Watkins. Some consumer advocates have questioned whether her experience representing some of Wall Street’s biggest financial institutions could influence her decisions as commissioner.
On Tuesday, Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, voted against her nomination, saying he did not think she was qualified for the job.
