Enforcement gains ended a three-year decline and marked a turnaround from fiscal 2006, when the SEC brought 574 actions.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said the latest results show the agency's enforcement division "continues to be the gold standard of securities-law enforcement."

The number of SEC enforcement actions in 2007 was second only to 2003, when the agency posted a record 679 cases. Congress approved dramatic increases in funding for the agency in 2002 as part of a sweeping attack on corporate accounting fraud.

Statistics provided by the agency for its fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, showed one-third of SEC enforcement actions involved financial reporting. The SEC brought 220 such cases in the just-ended fiscal year, up from 138 the year before.

Insider-trading cases changed little, with the SEC bringing 47 cases in fiscal 2007, compared with 46 in the prior year. The regulatory agency that oversees Wall Street brought 36 cases involving market manipulation, up from 27 in fiscal 2006. Almost two dozen of the SEC's actions involved hedge funds, including insider-trading cases.

In addition, the SEC said it brought 89 cases against brokers in fiscal 2007, and 79 involving investment advisors. Another 68 cases centered on securities offerings. The SEC initiated 52 cases against companies that failed to provide current financial reports, about half the pace in 2006.

Two dozen cases in fiscal 2007 involved stock-option backdating, with the SEC charging companies or individuals for choosing earlier dates - when the stock price was lower - as the grant date for issuing stock options. Options give holders the right to buy shares in the future at a pre-set price, and a lower price on the grant date could increase gains to holders if the stock price rises.