The SEC plans to lay off the top leaders at regional offices across the US as part of its cost-cutting recommendations to the Trump administration, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters.

On Friday, the SEC told directors across its 10 regional offices that their roles will be eliminated as part of the plan the agency submits next month, the sources said. An SEC spokesperson declined to comment and spokespeople for the White House did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Officials at the SEC’s 10 local offices – such as in New York City, San Francisco and Miami – work on examinations and investigations of public companies, broker-dealers and investment advisers in their regions. (The SEC shuttered its 11th office in Salt Lake City in June 2024, but it was not considered part of a larger cost-cutting initiative.)

On Thursday, senior employees across the agency joined a call during which leaders at the SEC said several of the agency’s staff were liaising with DOGE, according to one of the people and another source with knowledge of the discussion.

The Trump administration has launched a purge of federal workers that is likely to have ramifications for the economy, especially at the local level, according to economists. The legality of the move is being debated in court.

Directors of regional offices report to the Acting Chairman, Mark Uyeda, and those regional heads were told to submit to him their recommendations for reorganization on Tuesday, said the source. The final vote on the matter will come down to the three commissioners at the SEC right now – Chair Uyeda, and commissioners Hester Peirce and Caroline Crenshaw.

DOGE in action

The White House, with the help of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has fired or offered buyouts to workers across the federal government, the largest employer in America. 

Job cuts have come from across the government, the first wave coming from a dismissal of “probationary” employees – or more recently hired ones who have been with the federal government for only a year or two and don’t yet have full civil service protections.

Another group of federal employees accepted buyout offers, agreeing to resign but still getting paid through September. The two groups combine to reach a total of about 300,000 workers, making the actions “the largest job cut in American history (by a mile),” according to Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholz Wealth Management.

And it doesn’t include some others whose jobs are up in the air (pending court proceedings), such as contractors at the US Agency for International Development.

At the SEC, lawyers at the agency have been told they need to seek permission from leadership before formally launching probes in a big change in procedure that could slow down investigations, Reuters reported earlier this month. And the agency has scaled back its 50-staff enforcement unit, assigning them to other departments and creating a consolidated Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit, indicating a likewise narrowing of enforcement activity in this area.