Division of Trading and Markets Deputy Director Gary Barnett to Retire

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Gary Barnett, Deputy Director in the Division of Trading and Markets, will retire from the agency at the end of the year.

Since January 2015, Mr. Barnett has overseen the division’s Office of Broker-Dealer Finances, Office of Derivatives Policy, Office of Trading Practices, its Volcker rule team, and its participation in various global regulatory initiatives.  In addition, he has been a member of the agency’s Cybersecurity Working Group and its Fintech Working Group and has been its senior most representative on multiagency groups including the Senior Supervisors Group and the Supervisors Roundtable on Governance Effectiveness.  In the course of his work for the agency, Mr. Barnett has provided vision and leadership in connection with advancing broker-dealer supervisory practices in the areas of capital, liquidity, margin, risk management, culture and conduct, governance effectiveness, new products, and outsourcing and vendor risk.  He also significantly contributed to the agency’s work on broker-dealer cybersecurity and fintech, including blockchain, big data and artificial intelligence.  He focused on the uses of fintech by regulators and the ways in which new technologies may affect the regulatory approach.  

“Gary has provided valuable leadership on a number of important rulemaking and policy initiatives and his dedication to promoting strong capital markets has served investors well,” said Chairman Jay Clayton.

“Gary has been an insightful and innovative leader of our broker-dealer supervisory efforts,” said Brett Redfearn, the Director of Trading and Markets.  “Gary has made invaluable contributions by proactively focusing attention and pursuing progress on a variety of emerging issues, from risk management to cybersecurity to fintech.”

Mr. Barnett said, "It has been a great honor to serve at the Commission.  I have been privileged to work with extremely talented and dedicated staff members and to contribute to the Commission's important work on a number of fronts."

Before Mr. Barnett joined the SEC in January 2015, he was the director of the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight at the CFTC from 2011.  Prior to joining the CFTC in 2011, he was a partner at Linklaters LLP in New York and head of its US derivatives and structured finance practice, and before that he was a partner at Shearman and Sterling LLP in New York and co-head of its structured finance and derivatives group.

Mr. Barnett earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Tulsa, his J.D. from the University of Tulsa College of law and an LL.M. from New York University School of Law. He has been an adjunct professor in derivatives regulation at Cornell Law School, is co-chair of the Practising Law Institute’s annual programs on fundamental and advanced derivatives, and is a member of the New York, California and Oklahoma bars.