Obama picks ex-Treasury official Gensler for CFTC

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday named former Treasury official Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a watchdog agency under fire recently over the deepening financial crisis.

Gensler -- undersecretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001 and assistant secretary of the Treasury from 1997 to 1999 -- would head the once low-profile CFTC for a president who wants to fundamentally change U.S. financial oversight.

If his nomination is approved by the Senate, Gensler would replace Walter Lukken, acting chairman of the CFTC who will step down upon Obama's inauguration on January 20.

Gensler declined to comment when reached by phone, directing questions to Obama's transition team.

Lukken called Gensler's nomination an "outstanding choice" to help the agency in its "vigorous oversight" of markets.

While the Securities and Exchange Commission regulates stock markets, the CFTC polices futures and options markets. Some financial analysts expect Obama to attempt to merge the two agencies and to make other fundamental changes.

Like the SEC, the CFTC has been criticized recently for failing to detect and fix problems with exotic financial instruments that are at the roots of the crisis.

"ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH"

Gensler's nomination came on the same day that Obama named veteran regulator Mary Schapiro as chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The president-elect said he would charge them with leading an overhaul of the financial regulatory system.

"We have been asleep at the switch," Obama told reporters. "I think the American people right now are feeling frustrated that there's not a lot of adult supervision out there."

Greg Zerzan, counsel and head of global public policy at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, said Gensler was well respected in Washington and Wall Street circles.

"The new administration has set an ambitious agenda for reforming the financial services regulatory structure, and Mr. Gensler is certainly going to be one of the people doing the heavy lifting," said Zerzan.

The CFTC also has come under intense criticism to boost oversight and rein in runaway speculation that has led to volatile swings in energy and commodity markets.

Congress is pushing for more regulation of the $58 trillion credit-default swaps market, financial instruments partly responsible for contributing to the global financial crisis.

"The CFTC has been doing its job with the limited authority they have been given by current statute," said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat.

Harkin added that he was looking forward to working with Gensler "to bring about needed changes involving transparency, integrity and openness to the markets."

Gensler advised Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes on the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform law and is a former partner at Goldman Sachs. He also has been an outspoken critic of the mutual fund industry, and co-authored a book, "The Great Mutual Fund Trap."

Gensler is one of three people named by Obama's transition team to review the SEC.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)