{"id":651310,"date":"2026-05-19T00:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/651310\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T00:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:11:11","slug":"sec-enforcement-actions-drop-to-16-year-low-in-first-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/651310\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC Enforcement Actions Drop to 16-Year Low in First Half"},"content":{"rendered":"

Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions against public companies and subsidiaries hit a 16-year low for actions filed in a fiscal year\u2019s first half, according to an analysis by Cornerstone Research.<\/p>\n

In total, the SEC logged five enforcement actions against public companies in the first half of FY 2026, a slight uptick from three actions in the second half of FY 2025. But in the first halves of 2021 through 2025, the agency brought 15, 23, 22 and 53 actions, respectively (and the overwhelming majority of 2025\u2019s 53 actions came before the administration turnover between President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump).<\/p>\n

Cornerstone Research Securities Litigation co-head and report co-author Sara Gilley noted that \u201cnuance is important\u201d when comparing data about SEC enforcement actions, acknowledging that the SEC tends to initiate more enforcement actions in the second half of fiscal years.<\/p>\n

Related:Compliance Officers Worry AI Demand Is Outpacing Regulators<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the analysis, three of the first-half actions involved public company defendants, while the other two involved only subsidiaries. Three of the public company actions concerned issuer reporting and disclosure allegations, which have typically accounted for about 38% of the annual filings. The other two actions involved an investment advisor and an exchange.<\/p>\n

Additionally, since the start of Trump\u2019s second term in January 2025, Cornerstone noted that there had been three dismissals of enforcement actions against public companies or subsidiaries (two last year, and one in the first half of this year); according to Cornerstone, they marked the first dismissals of actions against a public company in at least 16 years.<\/p>\n

The dip in actions between administrations was\u00a0mirrored in the agency\u2019s annual report on enforcement activities<\/a>, which shows a 26% decline in enforcement activity between fiscal years 2024 and 2025. In statements accompanying the report, the agency launched attacks on the enforcement approach during former SEC Chair Gary Gensler\u2019s tenure, claiming resources had been \u201cmisapplied in prior years to pursue media headlines and run up numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SEC declined to comment, aside from pointing to new Enforcement Division Director David Woodcock’s comments at last week’s MFA Legal & Compliance Conference<\/a>, including his support for\u00a0the agency\u2019s moves to prioritize \u201cquality over quantity\u201d in cases.<\/p>\n

During a recent discussion at FINRA\u2019s annual conference in Washington, D.C., last week, current SEC Chair Paul Atkins reiterated his claim that the agency is moving towards a \u201cback-to-basics\u201d approach, claiming to be focused on \u201cfraud and actual investor harm,\u201d as opposed to \u201cticky-tack\u201d violations.<\/p>\n

Related:FINRA Board Weighs Pulling Back Fee Increases<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we\u2019re focusing now on quality of cases versus quantity,\u201d Atkins said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to use these sorts of things to throw up numbers because, after all, that just doesn\u2019t really matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, consumer protection advocates, including Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, view the SEC enforcement action drops differently, calling it a \u201cpathetic and indefensible dereliction of duty.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a statement made after the agency<\/a>\u00a0released its enforcement report last month, Kelleher argued that the agency had dropped cases meriting \u201caggressive enforcement,\u201d and opted to be \u201ca political arm and ideological fellow traveler of the White House that favors the administration\u2019s friends, supporters and contributors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUp is not down; white is not black; and the SEC failure is not success\u2014it is actually failure,\u201d Kelleher claimed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions against public companies and subsidiaries hit a 16-year low for actions filed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-651310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}