Wolters Kluwer has unveiled a compilation of penalties imposed by U.S. financial services regulators over the past several years, providing compliance officers strategic insights into the aggregate volumes and penalty amountsissued to financial services institutions in the United States. Covering a period from 2018 through 2023 reflected in half-year increments, the Regulatory Violations Intelligence Index examines key violation categories--comp competition-related offenses, consumer protection-related offenses and financial offenses--across federal and state regulatory bodies. Key findings from the Index six-year review period: In terms of the volume of enforcement actions issued, the ranking of the three violation categories has remained consistent over the Index assessment period, with consumer protection-related regulations driving the highest number of penalties and competition-related regulations the lowest.

Among the key findings: Enforcement actions for illegal fees and customer data security breaches have been consistent priorities for banking regulators. Policy issuance and claims handling issues were repeatedly cited by insurance regulators. Consumer protection-related violations have been predominant, reaching a peak of 123 enforcement actions in the first half of 2020 and, in the second half of 2022, resulting in approximately $4.1 billion in penalties issued.

Additional findings: The second half of 2023 further reflects the magnitude of financial-related offense penalties in both the volume and amounts assessed: 46 violations totaling $11.3 billion, which represents a 130% increase in enforcement actions and a2,739% increase in penalty value over the previous half-year levels. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued the highest number of actions, focusing heavily on investor protection violations and internal financial institution supervision failures. Wolters Kluwer will update the Index semi-annually to give compliance professionals a timely, holistic view of the evolving supervisory priorities of key regulators for banks, brokerage firms and insurance providers.