The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Bush administration has begun background checks on its choices to replace Harvey Pitt as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The President is expected to name the nominee within two weeks. The incoming chairman will still need to be confirmed by the Senate.

Names of those rumored to be on the short list now include:

• Stephen Hammerman, deputy commissioner of legal matters at the New York Police Department and former vice chairman and general counsel at Merrill Lynch & Co.

• T. Timothy Ryan Jr., former chief of the federal agency set up to oversee the government's response to the savings-and-loan crisis during the first Bush administration.

• Robert Glauber, chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers, a self-regulatory organization funded by the securities industry.

• Peter Fisher, a Treasury undersecretary, former Harvard University professor and former official at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Mr. Pitt will remain as SEC chief until a successor is named. ("Bush Nominee for SEC Chief Is Expected Within Two Weeks," Wall Street Journal, December 4, 2002.)