SEC chairman Cox resigns

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission under outgoing President George W. Bush, Christopher Cox, resigned on Tuesday as the new president took office.

The departure of Cox, an independent regulatory official whose term extends through next year, had been expected. He also relinquished his position as one of the five members of the SEC. His resignation wasn't officially announced; it was confirmed by agency spokesman John Nester.

President Barack Obama has nominated securities industry regulator Mary Schapiro to head the SEC at a time of economic crisis and shaken investor confidence that has conferred heightened importance to the position. Obama is expected to name an acting chairman until Schapiro is confirmed by the Senate and installed in the job. The acting chairman could be one of the sitting SEC commissioners.

As the financial crisis has raged, the SEC has been going through one of the most difficult times in its history — buffeted by criticism for failing to detect signs that major Wall Street banks were in trouble before the crisis erupted last year, and for possibly lax oversight and enforcement in other areas. The scandal involving money manager Bernard Madoff brought new scrutiny on the SEC after it was revealed that agency staff repeatedly failed over the course of a decade to fully investigate credible allegations against him and to detect his alleged $50 billion fraud.

Cox, a conservative Republican congressman from California, was appointed by outgoing President Bush in mid-2005. Bush named him to the position after the surprise resignation of William Donaldson, a Wall Street veteran whom Bush had installed to help restore confidence in a stock market shaken by the wave of corporate scandals in 2002.

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