SEC’s 2025 Enforcement Report Details Its Failures Endangering Investors, Markets and Financial Stability

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Dennis Kelleher, President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Better Markets issued the following statement in response to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s months-late release of its enforcement results for the fiscal year ending last September 30:

“The SEC’s 2025 enforcement record is a pathetic and indefensible dereliction of duty and its attempt to characterize its failures as success would make George Orwell envious of the agency’s double-talking duplicity. Repeating the industry’s empty if not false talking points add no weight to a record of failure that is plain to see. Up is not down; white is not black; and SEC failure is not success—it is actually failure. It is no wonder that the SEC is releasing these results so late: it had to take a lot of effort to wordsmith this embarrassing record.

“Investors, markets and financial stability will all suffer as a result of the SEC abandoning its enforcement responsibilities and investor protection mission, but it’s even worse than that: the U.S. markets are the deepest and most liquid in the world because historically they have been well-regulated and well-policed. Those are the pillars upon which investor confidence and trust are based and the reasons why investors worldwide send their hard-earned money to the U.S. markets. That they are not well-regulated and well-policed will mean that capital formation, our economy, and ultimately U.S. living standards are going to suffer.

“In claiming to ‘reset’ what constitutes ‘effective enforcement,’ the SEC has abandoned genuine enforcement and, shockingly, has even joined with lawbreakers in dismissing and settling cases that merit the most aggressive enforcement actions, including some involving knowing and intentional fraud. Today’s reported enforcement results, along with its other conduct, show that the SEC is no longer the global gold standard of investor protection or even an independent agency fulfilling its mission to protect investors and markets. It is a political arm and ideological fellow traveler of the White House that favors the administration’s friends, supporters, and contributors. De facto unilateral disarmament in independently enforcing the securities law based on the facts and merits, including green lighting an anything goes approach to the crypto and other favored industries, will grievously harm investors, markets, and financial stability and contribute to the next financial crash.

“This chart shows that the SEC’s attempt to distort and contort the facts under the claim of providing ‘context’ cannot obscure the precipitous decline in enforcement activity at the agency over the last fiscal year:

“We agree with the SEC that fiscal year 2025 was ‘unique,’ but not for the reasons the SEC asserts. Instead, it was unique for the SEC’s abandonment of its efforts to do its job and enforce the federal securities laws. Better Markets will release a more detailed analysis of the SEC’s reported enforcement results in the coming days.”

Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies—including many in finance—to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.org.