SEC Lines Up Analytics Firepower with Berman Hire

Berman, a former co-founding partner of RiskMetrics Group, has been working with the SEC in its division of trading and markets as a senior advisor to the director since 2010.

The hire of Berman is designed to add weight to the SEC's new focus on data reception and analytics, in order to more adequately oversee technologically advanced markets. It recently announced that high-frequency trading (HFT) firm Tradeworx would be providing it with a market data system, named Midas, to this effect. The system is estimated to cost $2.5 million in the first year.

Berman will oversee the office, which aims to provide quantitative analysis, and expertise in risk management, trading and portfolio management. He holds a PhD in Physics from Princeton University, and a Bachelor's degree in the same subject from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His department is actively attempting to hire analysts away from Wall Street for one-to-two-year postings in order to further bolster the unit's capabilities, as SEC employment rules generally prohibit non-attorney employees from holding permanent positions within the organization. Potential analysts will, however, be able to work from the Commission's regional office in New York, as opposed to its Washington, DC headquarters.