Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler told senators Thursday that the agency needs more resources, noting that the exam division’s “work is essential to ensuring strong compliance across the board,” including “work to test for compliance with Regulation Best Interest.”
In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Gensler said that the enforcement division “is doing more with less.” For example, “more cases are being litigated and going to trial. The SEC has tried the same number of cases to verdict in federal courts in FY22 (14) as we did in the prior three fiscal years combined.”
In fiscal 2021, Gensler said, the agency received 46,000 tips, complaints and referrals from the public, up from about 16,000 five years earlier.
As to the exam division, Gensler said that in the most recent completed fiscal year, this division exceeded the previous year’s numbers by completing more than 3,000 exams.
The exam division “grew modestly (4%) since FY16,” Gensler said. The fiscal 2023 budget request supports an additional 4% increase in full-time examiners compared with fiscal 2021, he said.