At a time when regulators have been pushing to curb risky behavior from the private equity sector, the appointment of any of them would almost certainly be a huge boon to the industry. At stake are private markets that accounting firm EY estimated earlier this year at a value of $24.4 trillion – much of which was driven by industry giants Apollo, Blackstone and KKR.

Rowan has a lot in store for him. The Times reported that Trump is impressed with the Apollo CEO, who has been outspoken in his support of Israel and other Trump positions. Last week, Trump appointed Rowan’s fellow Apollo board member and former SEC chairman Jay Clayton as the U.S. attorney for the powerful Southern District of New York, known for prosecuting white-collar crimes. Former Republican Senator Pat Toomey joined Apollo’s board last February.

The wealth-obsessed Trump is likely impressed by Rowan’s estimated fortune of $8.6 billion, and by Rowan and his wife, Carolyn, who reportedly donated $1 million to Trump’s 2020 election bid. Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Rowan is interested in the role and is expected to meet the newly elected president at his Mar-a-Lago compound later this week.

Neither Apollo nor the Trump media team responded to request for comment.

SEC fails to expand supervision of private equity

How exactly could Rowan private equity help? Before the Great Recession, banks facilitated the lion’s share of private equity deals, leaving specialty houses like Blackstone, Apollo Global Management and Carlyle Group to fight for the scraps. As banks became more heavily regulated and risk-averse in the wake of the crisis, these private equity firms grew into superpowers larger than many of their banking competitors.

Since 2007, the global assets under management of these three companies alone have increased from less than $2 trillion to more than $8 trillion. Financial times report. New York-based Apollo Global became one of the standouts and now manages $733 billion in assets, much of it private wealth clients.

Although the DOJ has escalated its enforcement actions against private equity firms in recent years, the regulations so far have amounted to a patchwork of controls. The SEC tried to bring a sense of order to these controls last year by proposing measures that would have required private fund managers to issue comprehensive quarterly statements detailing fund fees, expenses and performance. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit struck down these advisor rules in June.

Enter the US Treasury Department

Even as the SEC’s attempt to rein in private equity business failed, the U.S. Treasury Department and other regulators in May issued separate rules requiring banks to share their private equity exposure. According to law firm Mayer Brown, the new rules will come into effect on December 31, 2024, with the first reports expected to be filed in the first quarter of 2025.

As US Treasury Secretary, Rowan would oversee not only the OCC, but also the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the IRS and the Inspector General, among others.

Trump’s last Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, also came from the private equity world, where he led Liberty Strategic Capital. He was selected on the expectation that he would roll back regulation, and after leaving he signed a number of lucrative deals, including a 5.5% stake in Lionsgate and a 7.7% stake in New York Community Bancorp.

Other candidates for Trump’s new Treasury secretary include former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh and Howard Lutnick, the Cantor Fitzgerald CEO whose enthusiasm for the job is reportedly working against Trump. Also in the running is Scott Bessent, the founder of investment firm Key Square Capital Management, who called Trump advisor Elon Musk a “business-as-usual” candidate on his social media platform.