Mary Jo White has some work to do

Note to New S.E.C. Chief: The Clock Is Ticking

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON, NYT

AFTER receiving unanimous support from the United States Senate, Mary Jo White was confirmed last week as the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. At her swearing-in, she praised S.E.C. officials for “vigorously enforcing the securities laws.”

Doubts remain, however, about how potent the S.E.C.’s enforcement has been, especially in the aftermath of the mortgage mania. So Ms. White has some work to do.

She surely has a long list of ideas for her S.E.C. stewardship. Here’s hoping that one priority is to determine, and ramp up, investigations and whistle-blower complaints that are approaching their five-year statute of limitations. For a lot of cases involving questionable practices and disclosures arising from the mortgage bust of 2008, time is running out.

A February ruling by the Supreme Court made this crystal clear. In a case called Gabelli v. S.E.C., the court ruled that the commission has no more than five years from the occurrence of a fraud to file enforcement actions. It cannot wait until it uncovers a violation to start that clock.

(More here.)