In a recent post, I noted the significant downturn in the amount of SEC enforcement activity during the 2025 fiscal year (ended September 20, 2025). What was true FY 2025 with respect to SEC enforcement activity in general was also true in particular with respect to SEC enforcement activity involving publicly traded companies. According to a new report, SEC enforcement activity against public companies and their subsidiaries also declined significantly during FY 20225. The report, written by Cornerstone Research in conjunction with the Securities Enforcement Empirical Database (SEED) of the NYU Pollack Center for Law & Business, contains a number of interesting observations about the level of enforcement activity in the agency’s final days under outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler, compared to the activity levels under the agency’s current Chair, Paul Atkins.

The report, which is entitled SEC Enforcement Activity: Public Companies and Subsidiaries: Fiscal Year 2025 Update,” can be found here. Cornerstone Research’s November 19, 2025 press release can be found here.

The report is based on the authors’ analysis of the SEED database, which includes SEC enforcement data for the period FY 2010 through FY 2025. The SEED database identifies 1,049 SEC enforcement actions initiated against 893 public companies and subsidiaries between October 1, 2009, and September 30, 2025.

According to the report, there were a total of 56 SEC enforcement actions initiated against public companies and their subsidiaries in FY 2025, compared to 80 actions against public companies and their subsidiaries in FY 2024, representing a decline of 30%.

However, the full fiscal year numbers only tell part of the story. In assessing the level of FY 2025 SEC enforcement activity, it is important to distinguish between the final months of the Biden administration and the initial months of the current Trump administration during the fiscal year and (that is, between the beginning of the FY 2025 fiscal year on October 1, 2024, and January 19, 2025, the date before President Trump was inaugurated).

Viewing the FY25 enforcement data in this way produces some startling results. As the report details, while the SEC filed 52 enforcement actions against public companies and their subsidiaries in the final months of the Biden administration, the SEC filed only four new actions against public companies in their subsidiaries in the first months of the current Trump administration.

The 52 actions filed in the final months of the Biden administration, under outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler, was the highest number under an outgoing SEC chair since at least fiscal year 2013. The four actions initiated under the new administration is the lowest level under an incoming administration since at least fiscal year 2013.

The report also provides some other startling observations about the drop off in the number of public company enforcement actions during FY25. Among other things, the report notes that there were only three public company enforcement actions initiated in the second half of FY25, the lowest half-year total in the SEED database. The lowest prior half-year total was 19, in the second half of FY 2017. The two actions initiated in the fourth quarter of FY25 represented the lowest quarterly number in the SEED database, compared to the prior low of six in the fourth fiscal quarter of FY 2011.

The report notes that the decline in the total number of public company actions initiated by the SEC between FY24 and FY 25 is “consistent with the general pattern for other fiscal years when the SEC administration changed.” The report quotes a statement by NYU Law Professor Stephen Choi as saying that while the SEC experienced a “sharp decline” in public company enforcement activity under then new administration, it “remains to be seen if this lower level holds.”

Along those lines, in trying to understand and explain the decline in the number of public company enforcement actions during FY25 (and in particular during the latter part of FY25), the report states that “the reduced enforcement activity in FY 2025 under Chair Atkins may be in part due to the high number of actions early in the fiscal year under Chair Gensler as well as the change in SEC priorities and in the timing of the appointment of a new Director of Enforcement” – that is, former Military Judge Margaret “Meg” Ryan, who was sworn in on September 2, 2025. The report notes that enforcement activity “could see a boost” as Ryan “has more time in her role and Chair Atkins’s priorities are more firmly established.”

Not only did the number of public company enforcement actions initiated decline in FY25, but the value of monetary settlements during the fiscal year decline as well. The was a total of $808 million in monetary settlements in public company enforcement actions in FY 2025, the lowest fiscal year total since FY 2012 (when there was a total of $752 million). The FY 2025 settlement total of $808 million is about 46% below the FY 2024 total of $1.5 billion. The FY 2025 total is also less than half of the FY 2016 – FY 2024 annual average total monetary settlements of $1.9 billion.

The report also notes that the FY 2025 monetary settlements total of $808 million is lowest annual total in the SEED database in a year in which there was a chance in the SEC administration. For example, and by way of comparison, the total monetary settlements in FY 2021 (the last fiscal year in which there was a change of administration), the total monetary settlements in public company enforcement actions was $1.834 billion.

Discussion

The report’s analysis is, as a general matter, interesting and informative. However, the report’s analysis based on a breakdown between the final months of the agency’s actions in the final months of the Biden administration and the first months of the current Trump administration is particularly instructive.

The incredibly small number of new public company enforcement actions during the first months of the Trump administration is so low that it is basically impossible to discern any patterns in the agency’s approach under the current administration. With so few new actions, there is basically no point to trying to identify the current administration’s public company enforcement priorities. However, along those lines, the press release does quote from the May 2025 statement by Paul Atkins that the agency under his administration would “return” to the “core mission that Congress set” for the SEC — prioritizing “protecting investors; furthering capital formation; and safeguarding fair, orderly, and efficient markets.”

Interestingly, in attempting to discern the reasons for the steep drop off in new public company enforcement actions, the report basically attributes the entirety of the drop off to the change in administration and the delay in the appointment of the new head of the Enforcement Division. Unlike the separate report I discussed in a post earlier this week, in which the authors attributed the decline in SEC enforcement activity at least in part to the huge drop off in the number of total employees at the agency, this report literally makes no mention of the vast shrinkage in the number of agency employees.

It may well be that the most important factors in the decline in the number of public company enforcement actions are the change in administration and accompanying change in priorities. However, I do not think that the dramatic decline in the number of SEC employees can be disregarded. A sudden decline in head count of nearly 25% would affect activity at any organization, and I find it implausible that the headcount reduction at the SEC has not seriously affected the agency’s activity. (My own conversations with former SEC employees tells me that operations at the agency have been disrupted; “chaotic” is a word I have frequently heard to describe the current atmosphere in light of the dramatic head count reduction).

It may well be that once the new Enforcement Division head gets up and running (which ought to kick in just about any day now) we will see greater activity and priority patterns will begin to emerge. That of course remains to be seen.