Enforcement of accounting and auditing regulations plummeted in 2025 amid leadership changes at major regulatory authorities during the first year of the new Trump administration.
The Securities and Exchange Commission initiated only 10 accounting and auditing actions last year, down from 31 in 2024 and its lowest level in nine years, in the first year of new chair Paul Atkins’ tenure.
The value of monetary settlements reached in 2025 was only $31 million, compared with $907 million the prior year, as detailed in a new report from Cornerstone Research released March 4. Almost all of that (98%) was imposed during outgoing chair Gary Gensler’s final three weeks in office.
President Trump nominated Atkins to the role on Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second presidential administration. The U.S. Senate confirmed Atkins on April 9.
Cornerstone’s report noted that while a change in administration is typically associated with a decrease in enforcement activity, the SEC’s 2025 activity was markedly below the number of actions it initiated during its prior two chairs’ first years. Only four of the 10 actions were initiated in the eight months after Atkins was sworn in.
Margaret Ryan, the recently appointed director of the SEC’s enforcement division, said in a Feb. 11, 2026, speech to the Los Angeles County Bar Association that she is “far more concerned with the quality and impact” of enforcement actions than with “chasing numbers.” She attributed that stance to resource limitations.
Meanwhile, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board finalized 37 enforcement actions in 2025, down 27%, as noted in a second Cornerstone report. Among them, 33 involved the performance of an audit, down 18% from the prior year.
Monetary penalties totaled $17.6 million, a 50% decrease from 2024. Of that amount, more than 98% was finalized before outgoing chair Erica Williams stepped down on July 22, 2025.
Williams, who had been PCAOB’s chair since 2022, resigned in 2025 at the request of Atkins. The SEC, which oversees the PCOAB, replaced her with interim chair George Botic, who was succeeded in turn by new chair Demetrios “Jim” Logothetis in February of this year.
Cornerstone noted that the monetary penalties imposed during Williams’ tenure accounted for 75% of all monetary penalties imposed by PCAOB during its 23-year history.
House Republicans last spring introduced legislation that would formally abolish the PCAOB within one year of its enactment. The elimination provision was later rolled into the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” budgetary reconciliation bill.
The OBBBA passed the House of Representatives, but the Senate Parliamentarian judged that the elimination provision had violated the Byrd Rule, which prevents “extraneous” non-budgetary items from being included in a reconciliation bill.
