SEC Could Hire More RIA Examiners With Budget Boost: Gensler

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler told lawmakers on Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2024 budget request of $2.436 billion for the SEC would help the agency’s Division of Examinations grow to 1,144 full-time positions — 83 more than the division has now.

“The majority of this increase relates to full-year funding for those staff positions authorized and hired in FY 2023,” Gensler told members of the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee. (The government’s fiscal year starts on Oct. 1 each year; FY 2023 began on Oct. 1, 2022.)

In FY 2023, “the number of positions funded by Congress was 5,303, a much-needed increase of 400,” Gensler told the lawmakers. “We’re now in the process of filling those positions.”

The FY 2024 request seeks funding for an additional 170 positions, as well as full-year funding for those staff hired in FY 2023, Gensler continued. The president’s FY 2024 budget would be a more than $200 million increase for the SEC over the agency’s 2023 budget allocation.

The SEC has 30 divisions and offices across 11 regional locations and its Washington  headquarters, Gensler said.

Under the FY 2024 budget request, the enforcement, exam and corporation finance divisions would see the biggest boost.

         Source: SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s written testimony before Congress on 3/29/2023  

Exams the ‘First Line of Defense’

The exam division “is the first line of defense for the investing public relying on investment advisors,” Gensler said.