On April 7, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC or the Commission) Division of Enforcement released its results for fiscal year 2025 (October 2024 through September 2025), providing the first full-year snapshot of enforcement activity spanning the final months of the prior administration and the early months of the Commission under Chairman Paul Atkins’ leadership. The headline figures reflect a marked decline in enforcement activity compared to recent years.
The Commission filed 456 enforcement actions, down significantly from the 583 actions reported in FY2024. The Commission filed more than half of the total enforcement actions for FY2025 between October 2024 and January 19, 2025 (President Trump’s inauguration day). The Division’s press release criticizes this “unprecedented rush” to file enforcement actions ahead of President Trump’s inauguration and “the aggressive pursuit of novel legal theories under the prior Commission.” The Division also reported closing 1,095 investigations without bringing an enforcement action.
In FY2025, the Commission reported obtaining orders for monetary relief totaling $17.9 billion (including $10.8 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and $7.2 billion in civil penalties) compared to monetary relief of approximately $8.2 billion in FY2024. However, the majority of the $17.9 billion in monetary relief stemmed from a case filed in 2009, which resulted in civil penalties of $5.9 billion and disgorgement of $9 billion. Without this case, the Commission obtained just $3 billion in monetary relief.
The following table summarizes the Commission’s enforcement activities and monetary relief from FY2021 through FY2025.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
| Total Actions | 456 | 583 | 784 | 761 | 697 |
| Total Monetary Relief (in millions) | $17,968 | $8,194 | $4,949 | $6,439 | $3,852 |
The majority of enforcement actions involved investment advisers/investment companies, securities offerings, delinquent filings, and broker-dealers. The following table summarizes the Division’s enforcement activities in FY2025 by classification:
| Primary Classification | Actions | % of Total Actions |
| Broker Dealer | 65 | 14% |
| Delinquent Filings | 84 | 18% |
| Foreign Corrupt Practices Act | 6 | 1% |
| Insider Trading | 32 | 7% |
| Investment Advisers / Investment Companies | 99 | 22% |
| Issuer Reporting / Audit & Accounting | 47 | 10% |
| Market Manipulation | 16 | 4% |
| Miscellaneous | 9 | 2% |
| NRSRO | 0 | 0% |
| Public Finance Abuse | 7 | 2% |
| Securities Offering | 90 | 20% |
| SRO / Exchange | 0 | 0% |
| Transfer Agent | 1 | 0% |
A central theme of the FY2025 report is the Commission’s deliberate pivot away from what current leadership has characterized as “regulation by enforcement.” The Division’s press release and accompanying remarks from Commission leadership pointedly criticize the prior administration’s enforcement approach, particularly in the digital-asset space and off-channel communications sweeps. The Division framed FY2025 as a transition year, with a stated focus on returning enforcement to its “core mission” of protecting retail investors from fraud rather than pursuing what it describes as technical or disclosure-driven cases against regulated entities acting in good faith.
Chairman Atkin’s remarks help frame the SEC’s forward looking approach succinctly: “We have redirected resources toward the types of misconduct that inflict the greatest harm—particularly fraud, market manipulation, and abuses of trust—and away from approaches that prioritized volume and record-setting penalties over true investor protection. A key part of this course correction is a renewed emphasis on holding individual wrongdoers accountable, which promotes stronger deterrence and better safeguards investors.”
Consistent with Chairman Atkins’ remarks and the Division’s report, market participants should expect greater focus on fraud and manipulative conduct, particularly conduct that affects retail investors or wrongdoing by individuals. The Division’s release highlighted that approximately two-thirds of the stand-alone charges brought in FY2025 included one or more individual bad actors (a 27% year-over-year increase). Market participants can help stave off enforcement actions, however, by self-reporting violations and cooperating meaningfully with the Commission. The Division’s release highlighted that some market participants received reduced civil penalties or no enforcement action because they self-reported and cooperated meaningfully with the Division.
Taken together, the FY2025 results signal a recalibration rather than a retreat: the Commission is bringing fewer cases focused on fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, Ponzi schemes, and breaches of fiduciary duty, but the Commission is signaling clearer priorities and a willingness to reward cooperation and remediation.
