By Chris Prentice
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) director of enforcement on Friday said the agency’s fiscal year 2021 enforcement figures will be “slightly down” from the prior year.
Speaking to a gathering of attorneys, SEC enforcement director Gurbir Grewal said the data, expected to be published within weeks, will show a decline versus fiscal 2020, but that the agency’s standalone actions are up and the staff are bringing “first of their kind” cases. Fiscal 2020 ended on Sept. 30.
The top U.S. markets regulator has taken a more aggressive stance on corporate misconduct under Democratic leadership. In recent weeks, the SEC chair and top enforcement officials have said they will speed up the investigative process, seek guilty admissions from wrongdoers and target gatekeepers’ compliance issues.
The agency’s enforcement staff are also increasingly raising the issue of clawing back executive compensation and have initiated multiple inquiries of Wall Street banks.
(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
