Securities and Exchange Commission chief Mary Jo White on Friday said she will shift 100 broker-dealer examiners to advisor exams "throughout" the year. This shift would be in addition to the 102 advisor/investment company examiners that would be hired with new funds in President Barack Obama's proposed 2017 budget, White told reporters at the annual Practising Law Institute's SEC Speaks conference.
Obama's last budget request to Congress, released in early February, is a $4.1 trillion plan for fiscal 2017 that would double funding for the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by 2021, with the SEC getting an 11% increase to $1.8 billion in 2017.
The SEC would use the 11% increase above the enacted 2016 level to hire 250 additional staffers, including 127 new examination staffers, of which 102 would be added to examine investment advisors and investment companies.
(The CFTC would get a 32% increase to $330 million in 2017.)
The 102 additional IA/IC examiners would be in addition to the 100 examiners that the agency is looking to shift from broker-dealer exams to advisor exams. With the additional examiners, the SEC hopes to increase its advisor exam rate — currently 10% of advisors per year — to 12%.
The SEC hopes to bolster frequency of advisor exams closer to broker-dealer coverage, which is about 50% per year between SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority exams.
