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A looming government shutdown would reduce U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staffing to “skeletal” levels, stopping it from approving companies’ Wall Street debuts and hindering its ability to respond to any market turmoil, its chair told lawmakers on Wednesday. *** Gensler said the agency would lose more than 90% of its workforce to unpaid […]
Anne Kelley, a longtime former SEC official who is now at Mercury Strategies, said that while the agency’s plan technically “only allows work to be done to prevent a risk of imminent harm to investors, our markets, or property,” it has some budgetary flexibility to use reserved funds. In 2013, she said, it stayed open […]
The White House has begun advising federal agencies to prepare for a government shutdown as Republican lawmakers have shown no signs of progress in negotiations to keep the government funded beyond this week. The United States has experienced 21 gaps in government funding since 1976, leading to varying degrees of disruption. Under a worst-case scenario, […]
Congress has about a week left to negotiate a deal to keep the SEC and other agencies working after Sept. 30. The last government shutdown from December 2018 to January 2019 hobbled the SEC. Only 122, or 3%, of the agency’s 4,418 employees at the time, worked full time during the shutdown, according to a […]
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s ability to police markets would be hobbled by a US government shutdown, according to the head of the regulator. SEC Chair Gary Gensler said the watchdog would be severely limited by a possible federal work halt at the end of this month. Wall Street’s main regulator might not be able […]
As a former SEC attorney with more than a little experience in whistleblower matters, I suspect I will soon learn, in connection with filing a whistleblower complaint on the above mentioned billion-dollar retirement scam, whether or not the SEC is truly monitoring tips that pose imminent harm to investors. But the larger point is, for the […]
The Meyer enforcement action highlights that in ways both big and small, the longest-ever government shutdown is making it difficult for federal agencies to do their jobs. At the SEC, a crucial responsibility is protecting investors from fraud. With the regulator’s staff shrinking to about 300 from more than 4,500, it’s all but stopped opening […]
John Stark, former chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement, which monitors, among other things, online trading and investment activity, called the numbers “shocking” and predicts an increase in insider trading while enforcement staff is on furlough. “There will absolutely be people on Wall Street, and off of Wall Street, who believe they may […]
The Division of Enforcement continues to monitor for submissions to the Tips, Complaints, and Referrals (TCR) system that appear to allege conduct that may pose a risk of imminent harm to investors or our markets. Staff is available to handle emergency enforcement matters, including temporary restraining orders and/or imminent deadline concerns, or investigations of ongoing […]
Beginning on Thursday, December 27, 2018 and continuing until further notice, the SEC has had only a limited number of staff members actively engaged in Commission business. While there are staff members available to respond to emergency situations involving market integrity and investor protection, including law enforcement, and the SEC continues to operate certain systems […]