(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump has selected junior CFTC Commissioner Caroline Pham as acting chair of the swaps and derivatives regulator, according to an announcement from her office.
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The five members of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted Monday to confirm Pham as acting chair. Traditionally the commission approves whoever the incoming administration has selected to serve in the acting role.
Pham said she was “humbled” by the selection.
“I want to thank President Trump for his confidence in me, and I’m grateful to my colleagues and the CFTC staff for their support,” she said in a statement. She added that she looked forward to working with “all stakeholders in this new capacity as we focus on the CFTC’s mission to promote well-functioning markets that support economic growth and the competitiveness of the United States.”
A permanent CFTC chair has yet to be announced. Pham has been among the contenders for the role. Other candidates for the permanent chairmanship have included Summer Mersinger, the senior Republican at the CFTC and Brian Quintenz, a former Republican CFTC commissioner who now leads policy for a16z Crypto, part of the Andreessen Horowitz venture capital fund.
Pham has been a proponent of providing regulatory clarity for digital asset companies, which the CFTC is poised to potentially play a greater role in regulating. She’s floated the idea of using “regulatory sandboxes” as a way to help companies test, for a short period of time, the viability of their products and services under close regulatory supervision but without necessarily going through its full registration and compliance process.
She’s also delivered strong dissents on agency rules and actions to block Kalshi Inc., an event contracts exchange, and other firms, from letting Americans trade on the elections. That could mean the CFTC takes a fresh look at how to regulate an industry that’s pushing the bounds of the agency’s statute during the new administration.
Former President Joe Biden nominated Pham as a CFTC commissioner in 2021. She had previously spent more than seven years at Citigroup Inc.
Pham will take the helm of the agency from Rostin Behnam until a permanent chair is confirmed by the Senate. Behnam has said he plans to step down from the chairman role on Jan. 20, and depart the agency on Feb. 7.