10.21.25

SEC Chief: Texting Crackdown Went Too Far

by: Melanie Waddell

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins said the agency’s recent crackdown on off-channel communications “was not the way a regulator should act,” signaling a shift in tone from prior enforcement under his predecessors. Speaking at an industry conference, Atkins said the SEC must focus on “genuine harm and bad acts” rather than penalizing benign infractions, such as minor recordkeeping failures. His comments follow criticism that the SEC’s texting probes were overly punitive, resulting in more than 90 cases and $2.2 billion in fines. Atkins also urged modernization of communication retention rules and cost-cutting in the Consolidated Audit Trail program.

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