SEC Chairman Jay Clayton’s initiative to emphasize Main Street investors led to the Enforcement Division’s core principles and directives in 2018: focusing on the Main Street investor, heightening individual accountability, keeping pace with technological changes and cyber threats, imposing remedies that most effectively further enforcement goals, and constantly assessing the allocation of resources. These principles were described in the Division’s FY 2017 annual report.

Adhering to these goals in this last year produced meaningful results, such as the return of almost $800 million to harmed investors, holding individuals (even at the highest levels) accountable, barring bad actors from the securities markets, and sending strong messages of deterrence. The Division’s focus on obtaining relief for harmed investors has been supported by numerous retail investor-specific initiatives, including the Division’s Share Class Selection Disclosure Initiative which is a self-reporting program designed to return money to investors who have been harmed by failures in disclosing conflicts of interest related to the selection of mutual fund share classes. The Division’s approach to addressing misconduct involving initial coin offerings and digital assets presents another example of its impact in protecting investors and market integrity.

As stated in the report, the SEC brought a diverse mix of 821 enforcement actions, including 490 standalone actions. A significant number (63%) of these standalone cases concerned investment advisory issues, securities offerings, and issuer reporting/accounting and auditing. The SEC also brought actions relating to market manipulation, insider trading, and broker-dealer misconduct, and obtained judgments and orders totaling more than $3.9 billion in disgorgement and penalties.

Sources:

SEC Enforcement Division Issues Report on FY 2018 Results (www.sec.gov)
SEC Division of Enforcement 2018 Annual Report (www.sec.gov)
SEC Division of Enforcement 2017 Annual Report (www.sec.gov)