The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association named former New Hampshire governor and U.S. senator Judd A. Gregg as its next chief executive officer. Gregg is known for advocating bipartisan approaches to balancing the national budget.
Gregg succeeds Tim Ryan, who left in February to join JPMorgan Chase and Co., the nation’s largest banking firm, as its global head of regulatory strategy and policy.
The financial industry advocacy group said Kenneth E. Bentsen Jr., who had been acting as president and CEO since Ryan’s departure, will stay on as president.
Gregg, a Republican, is a former chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. He and another former U.S. Senator, North Dakota Democrat and also a former chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, are known as progenitors of a plan for reshaping the U.S. finances known from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, often called the Simpson-Bowles plan.
At the outset of this month, Gregg said the country was not as far off from a deal to curb its budget deficit and soaring multi-trillion-dollar debt as is widely feared. At the annual general membership meeting of a fund industry association, he said this nation is “one debt deal away” from leading the world out of recession.
But that will mean cutting spending on entitlements such as Social Security, as well as health care costs. And simplying the tax code, so that it encourages investment and growth. In so doing, tax revenue will gain ground.
