Obama Selects SEC Commission Member as New Chair

Expected to continue path of outgoing head

President Barack Obama chose Elisse Walter, one of five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to head the agency. Chairman Mary Schapiro will leave next month after a tumultuous tenure in which she helped lead the government's regulatory response to the financial crisis.

Walter will take over at a critical time for the SEC, which is finalizing new rules in response to the 2008 crisis. She likely will follow the path Schapiro set at the SEC, experts suggest.