Under Trump, Wall Street regulator's headcount falls 18%, watchdog says

By Douglas Gillison

WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - Nearly one in five staff members had departed Wall Street's top regulator by September of last year under normal attrition and the Trump administration's campaign of job cuts, with losses falling most heavily on divisions overseeing investment managers and stock markets, an independent congressional watchdog reported Friday.

The erosion of the workforce, largely in response to the White House's demand for steep reductions across the federal government, further stretches capacity at a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission contending with far-reaching changes to the business and regulatory landscapes.

An SEC spokesperson said Friday that the agency had sufficient staffing and resources and that its chairman, Paul Atkins, was working to see that any necessary hiring occurred "in a timely manner."

"The voluntary staff departures have created opportunities for new talent to join the dedicated public servants that work daily to protect investors, facilitate capital formation, and maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets," the spokesperson said.

President Donald Trump and former advisor Elon Musk last year said "large-scale" cuts were necessary to rein in an allegedly wasteful and uncontrolled bureaucracy across the federal government. However, critics of administration and some staff say the cuts risk hindering the agency's ability to police markets and respond to crises. The SEC is funded through industry fees rather than taxpayer dollars.

The decline in the SEC's headcount has been substantially deeper than that generally seen in the entire federal government, which shrank 12% over a longer period, according to official figures.

As Reuters reported last year, 600 people, or 12% of agency staff, had participated in voluntary buyouts as of last May. Friday's report from the Government Accountability Office said, however, that by September more than 270 others had also departed outside of those early resignation and retirement programs, leaving the SEC headcount down 18% for the government's 2025 fiscal year.

Michael Clements, head of financial markets and community investment at GAO, said that some SEC staff complained in conversation about increasing workloads and knowledge loss due to the departures, but that "targeted hiring" could occur.

"We're aware at this point that the commission is working through a staffing plan," he said.