SEC’s White Says Waivers Aren’t Additional Enforcement Tools
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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White waded into a battle over how strongly Wall Street should be punished, saying the commission should stay away from politics and judge cases on the merits.
At issue are additional punishments that automatically kick in when a bank settles an enforcement matter. The SEC has the power to waive those sanctions, which include barring firms from certain lines of business, and the commission has become divided in recent months over how aggressively to exercise that authority.