Be sure to read this post: BRUTAL & UGLY: Top Bank Lawyer’s E-Mails Show Washington’s Inside Game and decide if this one reason for her stepping down?

BFF’s? Elisse Walter was an executive vice president at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, where Schapiro was chairman and chief executive officer before rejoining the SEC.

Do you think this was the right choice? Oh and did you know Her husband runs antitrust policy for GE, a massive financial services company. h/t Matt Stoller

Why did Obama pass on Neil Barofsky or Sheila Bair? Never-mind we know the anwser.

Mary Schapiro will step down next month as U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, turning over the reins to Commissioner Elisse Walter in a move industry observers say will bring little change at the agency.

Schapiro, 57, who took the SEC’s top job in 2009 as it reeled amid public rebukes for failing to rein in Wall Street abuses, will leave the post Dec. 14, the agency said in a statement today. President Barack Obama named Walter to succeed Schapiro as the SEC navigates a flood of mandates from the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and pursues efforts to overhaul regulation of money-market mutual funds and high-frequency trading.

[SF GATE]