backOn February 11, 2026, Margaret Ryan, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, delivered her first public remarks as Director in a speech to the Los Angeles County Bar Association. In her prepared remarks, Director Ryan identified her three enforcement priorities: (1) vigorously enforcing federal securities laws with fairness “and a focus on timely resolution of cases”; (2) protecting investors “from the myriad fraud schemes cooked up by bad actors”; and (3) pursuing enforcement actions for compliance failures that pose risks to investors or market integrity.
Director Ryan said that the Division will “continue to charge violations of the securities laws for misconduct that clearly undermines market integrity, including accounting fraud.” While noting that violations of compliance requirements are not necessarily on par with fraud, Director Ryan said that enforcement of various compliance requirements, including those relating to the maintenance of systems of internal accounting controls, is “necessary to maintain the fairness of our capital markets.”
Director Ryan’s full prepared remarks can be found here.