Improvements taking place at OCIE. 

That's what SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami and OCIE Director Carol di Florio told a Senate Banking Committee.  OCIE used recommendations from the SEC Inspector General and the Staff's Suggestion Box.  The changes chiefly target concerns raised about the Agency's investigation of the alleged Robert Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme.

    Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations:  Response to Inspector General.    OCIE's undertaken specific policy changes and instituted procedures to improve coordination and communication between the Enforcement Division and OCIE. 

• Through a number of structural and process reforms, OCIE and Enforcement are working to identify misconduct earlier and to move to shut it down more rapidly. 
  
• Potential referrals from the OCIE Exam staff are evaluated against Enforcement's criteria regularly and the Staff tracks their disposition. 
  
• Disagreements on cases, at the regional level, are escalated to senior leadership in Washington, ensuring that concerns can be escalated in a timely manner to senior leadership of both the Exam and Enforcement programs for appropriate review and resolution.

OCIE's also reviewing how Exam and Enforcement coordinate particular matters. 

• OCIE policy now requires OCIE Exam staff to hold quarterly Exam Reviews covering every exam in the Regional Office. 
  
• OCIE staff evaluate several factors, such as significant issues with the firm under exam, the need for additional staff resources on particular exams, particularly if the exam is a potential referral to Enforcement. 
  
• These exercises also help flag potential differences in the assessment of urgency, potential harm to investors, or other issues that can then be raised at the joint regional meetings or to OCIE senior management.

OCIE Exam staff also is working closely with the Specialized Units created recently within Enforcement to identify key risks presented by entities registered with the SEC and key risks to the markets.  This new partnership has resulted in new approaches to joint efforts to identify risky firms that may warrant examination or an Enforcement investigation.  OCIE will also create several Specialized Working Groups that will focus on areas where OCIE plans to increase its specialization and market knowledge.

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