I. Introduction: Themes and Notable Developments
A. Behind and Beyond the Enforcement Numbers
This year, the SEC's review of the performance of the
Enforcement Division has de-emphasized the statistics and focused
more on qualitative measures of its performance. As Chairman
Clayton noted in his December testimony to the Senate Banking
Committee, "purely quantitative measures alone cannot
adequately measure the effectiveness of Enforcement's work,
which can be evaluated better by assessing the nature, quality and
effects of each of the Commission's enforcement actions with an
eye toward how they further the agency's mission."1
With that said, this fiscal year saw a spike in the number of
enforcement actions – the number of standalone enforcement
actions increased to 526 from 490 the prior year, and the amount of
financial remedies obtained also increased to $4.3 billion from
$3.9 billion the prior year. However, an unstated reason to avoid
focus on statistical
