New US president Barack Obama has announced that Mary Schapiro will chair the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), while Gary Gensler will chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Schapiro is currently chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the US's largest independent regulator of securities firms. Gensler served as undersecretary of the Treasury during the Clinton administration and later as a senior adviser to the Senate banking committee. Michael