By Chris Prentice
NEW YORK, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The US Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday that it levied nearly $1.1 billion in fines and other financial remedies in fiscal 2026, marking the lowest level of penalties the Wall Street watchdog has imposed since 2008, according to a Reuters review of agency statistics.
The SEC brought 348 enforcement actions in the year that ended September 30, down from 456 last year, the agency said in a statement. That compares to a median of 715 cases
per year from 2005-2025, according to a Reuters review of SEC annual reports and a summary available on the SEC's website.
The figures are likely to stoke concerns among Democrats and consumer advocacy groups that the agency, which oversees more than 30,000 brokers, funds and other financial firms, is dramatically stepping back from enforcement under Republican US President Donald Trump's administration.
Republican leaders, who took the helm of the SEC in January 2025, have generally argued that overly onerous enforcement stifles business and in the case of public corporations, punishes shareholders. Current SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, for example, has described the SEC's previous enforcement stance as opaque and unpredictable.
"The success of the SEC’s enforcement program is ultimately measured by how effectively it advances the SEC’s mission, protects investors, holds wrongdoers accountable, and strengthens confidence in our markets,” Atkins said in Tuesday's statement. "Enforcement actions and financial remedies are important measures of activity, but they are not the only or most telling measures."
The total penalties levied in fiscal 2026 included $343 million in civil penalties and another $752 million in disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, the SEC said.
Atkins has said SEC enforcement should focus more on bread-and-butter fraud. In fiscal 2025, the SEC levied $17.9 billion in fines and other remedies largely on the back of a huge final judgment for a Ponzi scheme case brought in 2009. Activity and fines otherwise declined.
The agency's enforcement team had a turbulent time during the first 18 months of Trump's second term, with staff leaving in droves and the enforcement director quitting just six months into the job. The staff exodus left the SEC with fewer resources to police Wall Street, though it has since hired for some positions.
New SEC Enforcement Director David Woodcock said in September the agency was focused on a "healthy, visible enforcement program" rather than statistics. He later told Reuters in an interview that he is now "comfortable" with current staffing levels and thinks the agency will be able to do more with less.
(Reporting by Chris PrenticeEditing by Michelle Price)
