[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

For fiscal 2012, SEC says it go a bang for the many bucks it spent in protecting individual investors and pursuing those whose actions contributed to the financial crises.  Both objectives factored largely in the Commission's record number of enforcement cases it handled.  These and other factoids are presented in the SEC Fiscal 2012 Summary and Financial Information report.  We didn't have the time to read through the anthology for 2012, so we pulled some statistics from the Executive Summary and provide a link to those who have more free time on their hands and free space in their heads.

Strategic Goals and Costs.  The SEC expressed 4 strategic goals that divvied up $1.1 billion of the Agency's budget.

GOAL 1: Foster and enforce compliance with the Federal securities laws. Cost: $552.3 million

GOAL 2: Establish an effective regulatory environment. Cost: $163.9 million

GOAL 3: Facilitate access to the information investors need to make informed investment decisions. Cost: $187.2 million

GOAL 4: Enhance the Commission’s performance through effective alignment and management of human, information, and financial capital. Cost: $294.1 million

Here are the SEC's statistical results for the past year:

• 734 enforcement actions brought in FY 2012 marked the 2nd highest amount ever filed in a fiscal year – 150 of which were filed in investigations designated as National Priority Cases

• The SEC distributed to harmed investors $508 million obtained through the SEC’s enforcement actions, made through 72 Fair Funds set up under a provision of the Sarbanes- Oxley Act.

• The agency approved or disapproved 308 Self Regulatory Organization (SRO) rule changes filed pursuant to the Exchange Act, which represents a 40% increase over the prior fiscal year. The Commission determinations occurred within the Dodd-Frank Act statutory timeframes 99% of the time.

• The Commission surpassed all of its FY 2012 targets for responding timely to written requests for no-action letters, exemptive applications, and written interpretive requests.

• The SEC hit a total of 16 million investors, 1.2 million more investors this year than in FY 2011, as a result of a direct mail partnership with the Internal Revenue Service, and held 47 in-person events.

• During FY 2012, the Commission issued initial comments on Securities Act filings within an average of about 25 days of filing.

For further details, go to [SEC Fiscal 2012 Summary of Performance and Financial Information].