Biden picks Citi executive, ex-Senate aide for GOP seats at CFTC

The Biden administration is planning to nominate a Citigroup lawyer and a former Republican Senate aide to fill the GOP’s two seats on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, setting the stage for the main U.S. derivatives regulator to be at full strength next year.

The White House said in a statement that it’s set to select Summer Mersinger, who now serves as chief of staff to CFTC commissioner Dawn Stump, and Caroline Pham, a managing director at New York-based Citigroup, to join a key Wall Street regulator.

The CFTC oversees much of the $610 trillion global derivatives market and has sway over the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry. Still, the regulator is currently down to just two commissioners with the Senate yet to approve Christy Goldsmith Romero and Kristin Johnson to serve as Democratic commissioners. Rostin Behnam, who has been serving as acting chair since January, could be confirmed as soon as this month.

Before joining the CFTC two years ago, Mersinger spent 15 years on Capitol Hill working for lawmakers including Republican Senator John Thune, from South Dakota. Pham has held several positions at Citigroup, including deputy head of global regulatory affairs, and earlier in her career she worked as a special counsel at the CFTC.

If confirmed, President Biden’s nominees would replace Stump, who recently said she won’t seek another term, and Brian Quintenz, who stepped down earlier this year.