Simon Newman/ReutersGary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission since 2009.Gary Gensler, one of the top regulators of Wall Street, is assuring officials that he plans to remain in the Obama administration through at least December even as he weighs other options, according to three people briefed on the matter.
The White House approached Mr. Gensler in January about serving a second five-year term as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the people said. While Mr. Gensler has yet to commit to a second term, and has no deadline to respond, he is considering staying.
But another corner of the Obama administration could draw him away from the trading commission, a once sleepy agency that he overhauled after the financial crisis.
Mr. Gensler, the people briefed on the matter said, has discussed other senior financial roles with the White House. The jobs could include deputy Treasury secretary and head of the Commerce Department. Two of the people said Mr. Gensler was once interested in running the Securities and Exchange Commission, though President Obama recently nominated Mary Jo White for that job.
A departure from the trading commission next year would come at a natural transition point for Mr. Gensler, who has run the agency since 2009. The agency has completed 80 percent of the new rules for derivatives trading that it inherited under the Dodd-Frank Act, which Congress passed in response to the financial crisis. The most contentious rules are largely behind the agency, potentially pushing Mr. Gensler into a diminished role should he accept a second term.
In an interview on Tuesday, however, Mr. Gensler said his task was not yet complete.
“It’s an incredible privilege and there’s still a lot of work to be done here at the C.F.T.C.,” he said. He declined to identify the other government posts he would pursue.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the White House had invited Mr. Gensler to serve a second term.
Mr. Gensler’s tenure at the trading commission has coincided with the agency’s revival. The shake-up stems from the wave of new regulation under Dodd-Frank, which greatly expanded the responsibility of the agency, stretching its reach to the dark corners of the $300 trillion derivatives market at the center of the financial crisis. Before that, the agency oversaw the $40 trillion futures business.
Mr. Gensler, a chief advocate of the law, lobbied lawmakers to close loopholes and has adopted a broad approach to rule-making. He also hired a new enforcement director, David Meister, who has sued some of the world’s biggest banks over manipulating interest rates.
That stance has won him few friends at Wall Street banks, which argue that the trading commission is harming their bottom line without protecting the markets. He has also drawn the ire of Congressional Republicans, who say the agency is overstepping its authority.
Mr. Gensler joined the agency after a long career at Goldman Sachs and a stint in the Wall Street-friendly Clinton administration.
But he has vowed that whatever his next step, it will not be a return to Wall Street.
“This stage of my life is really about public service,” he said in a 2010 interview. “So no, I don’t have any interest to do that.”