In her speech today entitled “The Road to Investor Confidence” at the SIFMA Annual Conference, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro provided some Enforcement-related statistics for January-September 2009 that I had not seen before.  The statistics indicate that the SEC has been quite busy this year as compared to the first nine months of 2008.  Specifically, Schapiro stated, the SEC has

• Issued more than twice as many formal orders (about 448, compared to 181);
• Filed more than twice as many emergency actions (about 62, compared to 30);
• Opened nearly 50 more investigations (approximately 713, compared to 663); and
• Obtained orders for twice the amount in disgorgements and penalties, over roughly the same time ($1.8 billion compared to $865 million).

The SEC has not yet released its full statistics for fiscal year 2009, but that information is typically made available in late October and should be out soon.