The Bush administration will nominate Troy Paredes, a Washington University law professor, to be a Republican commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a senior administration official told CFO.com on Tuesday.
The decision comes a day after Paul Atkins announced that he would not seek re-nomination to the SEC when his second term ends in June.
The 37-year-old Paredes teaches classes on corporations, securities regulation, corporate finance, and the theory of the firm at the St. Louis school. His research has focused on the role of psychology on corporate decision-making and investor behavior and on the growth of corporate governance and securities laws in developing countries. He has also worked on issues involving executive pay, hedge funds, and intellectual property.
Paredes was not available for comment and, according to the administration official, would not be able to speak on the record until he is confirmed by the Senate.
As the SEC makes its continued push toward adopting the eXtensible business reporting language (XBRL), or “interactive data,” as a new format for financial reporting, Paredes appears to have the correct technology credentials. One of his works in progress is titled “The ‘What’ versus ‘How’ of Disclosure: On the Promise of XBRL to Promote Transparency”. He has also been a guest blogger for the Hitatchi XBRL Business Unit and popular finance blogs such as The Conglomerate and Jim Hamilton’s World of Securities Regulation.
Paredes had been among four candidates being considered for the nomination, beating out three securities lawyers. Larry Ribstein, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, was hoping in February that Paredes would get the nomination, noting his criticism in 2006 of the SEC’s decision to regulate hedge funds and his “concern that political and psychological influences result in overregulation.”
“It would be great if somebody who understands both the causes and possible cures of excessive regulation of financial markets were actually in a position to put that understanding into action,” Ribstein told CFO.com. “I think Paredes is such a person. At the same time, I think he understands the need for and importance of appropriate regulation of financial markets.”
Before joining Washington University, Paredes was a corporate and regulatory lawyer working on leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, and private-equity financing. He is a 1992 graduate of University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in economics, and is a 1996 graduate of Yale Law School.