SEC develops post-Madoff rules

The internal watchdog at the US Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday released two large reports detailing ways to improve the SEC’s enforcement and examinations divisions after they failed for years to uncover Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme.

The reports come just a few weeks after SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz completed a larger 477-page report which found the SEC received six substantive tips about the Madoff fraud over the years but was hampered by inexperienced staff, delays, too narrow a focus and a lack of communication. Those failures caused the SEC to miss numerous red flags in five separate investigations and examinations. Among the key problems uncovered by the report was the SEC’s failure to verify with a third party that Madoff was actually making trades.