At the Bitcoin 2024 conference in July, Donald Trump stated that, if he were elected president, he’d fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler “on day one.” The announcement was met with loud applause.

Gensler has cracked down hard on the crypto industry during his term as chair, suing such major players as Coinbase, Cumberland DRW, and Kraken, and going after fraudsters like Sam Bankman-Fried and Do Kwon. In a 2023 speech, he called the crypto field “rife with fraud, scams, bankruptcies, and money laundering.”

The price of bitcoin skyrocketed to a record high of more than $93,000 following the election. Advocates anticipate a more crypto-friendly SEC under Trump.

But technically, Gensler’s term as chair lasts until 2026. What’s likely to happen to Gensler’s job between now and then?

You can’t fire him—he quits! Traditionally, SEC chairs step down when a different president from the one who appointed them comes to power. Though they’re not required to do so, there are good reasons for this norm, Hadas Jacobi, an attorney specializing in digital assets and regulation at Reed Smith LLP, told CFO Brew.

For more on Gensler’s future under a second Trump administration, click here.—CV

The AICPA is updating its standards for peer review as part of its multiyear process of introducing new risk-focused quality management standards, which organizations have until late 2025 to implement.

The AICPA’s Peer Review Board voted Nov. 4 to publish an update to the peer review standards, applicable to peer reviews “with years ending on or after Dec. 31, 2025,” according to the Journal of Accountancy, an AIPCA publication. The peer review standard, Reviewing a Firm’s System of Quality Management and Omnibus Technical Enhancements, “is expected” later this month, the JofA reported.

Long time coming. The AICPA in May approved the last in a pack of updated quality management standards that were published starting in 2022. According to the JofA, the new standard “introduces a risk-based approach that provides a scalable methodology to quality for all firms, from sole practitioners to large multinational firms.”

To comply with the new standard, firms will need to “[perform] a risk assessment and…implement a customized system of quality management” by Dec. 15, 2025, the JofA reported.

To keep reading about the peer review update, click here.—GD

It’s an announcement that no company wants to make. But Spirit Airlines had to go there on Monday, announcing it was filing for Chapter 11 protection after attempts to cut costs, find new sources of revenue, or merge with another carrier failed. The budget airline has been losing money for years, and has more than $1 billion in debt payments coming due over the next two years, the Associated Press reported.

Nosedive. While it has some challenges in common with other airlines, Spirit has been hit harder by the turbulence. Its share price has fallen by 97% over the last six years, according to the AP, and when travel picked up after the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, it “failed to return to profitability.”

It has struggled to adjust to rising costs, “especially for labor,” the AP reported, while bigger airlines have started offering budget fares that have eaten into Spirit’s business.

Spirit also took a hit after it grounded dozens of planes over issues with their engines. And while other US airlines have been cutting flight capacity, Spirit’s nearly 20% reduction in late 2024 will send more of its potential customers to JetBlue, Southwest, and competing budget flier Frontier, analysts told the AP.

Click here for more on Spirit’s bankruptcy.—GD