SEC Enforcement Actions Decline

The SEC under Chairman Jay Clayton has been favorable to capital formation especially with respect to private companies and smaller public companies or to be public companies. Surprisingly, the decline in cases brought against public companies in the past year comes in a year that saw the SEC collect a record-breaking $4.68 billion through its enforcement actions, with $3.6 billion coming from disgorgement and another $1.1 billion from penalties. In my opinion, enforcement actions are an important tool of the SEC and it has been good to see them reducing unnecessary burdensome regulations on capital formation while increasing their focus on enforcement. I am hopeful that the reduction was merely a result of COVID arising in 2020 and that the SEC will continue its trend of focusing more resources on enforcement while providing law abiding companies more options for fundraising at lower cost.