Hiring at SEC

This morning, SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro will be grilled by members of House Financial Services on the direction for the SEC. The harshest fire will actually be levied against Schapiro's predecessors. Rep. Bachus (R-AL) and Rep. Royce (R-CA) both criticized the failure to catch Bernie Madoff.

Schapiro expressed "regret" about the Madoff fraud. A figure attached to her testimony (below) shows that Wall Street has simply increased the amount of trading to a level that overwhelmed the SEC staff.

So if you're into finance, and don't want your compensation scrutinized in public, the SEC may be willing to take your work.

According to Schapiro:

For example, to better enable our staff to conduct oversight of complex trading strategies and
products that exist in today’s markets, we are enhancing training for our staff and also recruiting additional professionals with expertise in securities trading, portfolio management, valuation, forensic accounting, information security, derivatives and synthetic products, and risk management.

Of course, Congress' concerns were about the quality not quantity of the SEC staff so hiring experts makes sense. In fact sub-committee Chairman Kanjorski is asking about the possibility of firings and accountability.