SEC official defends record against financial industry wrongdoers

A top official with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Sunday defended the agency’s performance holding officials in the financial and mortgage industries accountable for their role in the country’s financial meltdown.

“I certainly understand the feelings given the breadth of loss and the impact of the financial crisis on people’s livelihoods and people’s savings and investments,” SEC Enforcement Division Director Robert Khuzami said during an appearance on C-SPAN’s Newsmakers. “Having said that…I think our performance has been very strong in this area.”

He noted at least 102 entities and financial firms have been charged with wrongdoing related to the financial meltdown, as well as 55 chief executives, chief financial officers and other top figures in the mortgage, banking and mutual fund industries.

While defending the agency’s efforts, Khuzami said the SEC could do more if it had more funding and authority. He noted that the agency’s technology budget is a fraction of what Wall Street Firms spend on technology and telecommunications services, while current regulations restrict the SEC from imposing bigger fines on financial wrongdoers.

“I think with more resources we would be able to do deeper dives,” Khuzami said. “We would have more people being able to react sooner and conduct investigations at an earlier stage so that we could stop fraud before the investor money is lost. That’s probably the single biggest thing we would do.”