Hillary to tap ex-Wall Street regulator as campaign CFO

Hillary Clinton plans to tap Gary Gensler, a former top Wall Street regulator, as her campaign’s chief financial officer, according to a report Thursday from Bloomberg.

Bringing Gensler onboard could help Clinton’s campaign shore up support on the left, which has been critical of the 2016 Democratic presidential contender’s ties to Wall Street.

{mosads}Gensler served as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Corporation under President Obama. The agency was tasked with establishing rules on derivatives under the Dodd-Frank reform law.

As chairman, Gensler aggressively pressed to implement those reforms, sparking pushback from congressional Republicans who sought to slash the agency’s budget and block those rules. Wall Street also pushed back, suing the agency and lobbying against his changes.

Gensler, though, has strong connections to the financial industry, having worked at Goldman Sachs for 18 years and rising to co-head of finance. He also served in the Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton.

Hillary Clinton, who announced her candidacy on Sunday, is the Democratic front-runner. But a number of progressive groups have pressed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to challenge her from the left.

Warren has said she is not running, but Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) has said he is weighing a bid.

Clinton has sought to mend ties with progressives, penning a tribute to Warren in Time magazine and blasting excessive pay for CEOs and wage disparities in recent days.