In several weeks, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will
release its annual enforcement results, and speculation about the
trajectory of the SEC's Division of Enforcement will resume in
full force.
The results will reflect enforcement activity from the first
full fiscal year of Jay Clayton's tenure as SEC chairman. In
the 16 months since Clayton's swearing in, there have been
repeated questions about how vigorously the Division of Enforcement
is policing the U.S. capital markets. Naturally, following Mary Jo
White's "bold and unrelenting" enforcement agenda,
many expected a decline in enforcement activity under Clayton.
There has, in fact, been a dip in the number of SEC enforcement
actions during Clayton's tenure, but the decline has not been
as precipitous as many anticipated. And the decline in enforcement
activity does not tell the whole story of the current enforcement
program. There have been marked changes in priorities and tone and
subtle shifts
