SEC Enforcement Prognosis For 2014

A seasoned SEC observer looks ahead to 2014 and what the SEC’s enforcement priorities are likely to be, based on both an analysis of what it did during the past year and what it’s been saying publicly. “Promises have been made,” he notes, “that enforcement will be bold, unrelenting and everywhere.” Emphasis, he says, is likely to concentrate in several key areas, including the exchanges and SROs (the “Self-Regulating Organizations,” like the NYSE, which was cited last year for lack of fairness in how nonpublic market data was disseminated), insider trading and the FCPA. An important question, the writer says, is whether the SEC will in fact be able to marshal the resources it would need to carry out its promised get-tough approach and “bring back the swagger for the enforcement program.”