The NERA study, "SEC Settlements: A New Era Post-SOX," projects that the SEC is on pace to reach 739 settlements by year-end 2008. This marks the second straight year of increased settlement activity, with 702 settlements in 2007 and 663 in 2006.

Since the passage of SOX, the SEC has imposed unprecedented monetary penalties on a range of defendants. Prior to SOX, the largest penalty imposed in an SEC enforcement action against a publicly traded company for financial fraud was a $10 million penalty against Xerox in April 2002. By contrast, according to NERA's research, since SOX the SEC has imposed penalties of $10 million or more against 115 parties, including 14 that were penalized at least $100 million.

Other findings of "SEC Settlements: A New Era Post-SOX" include:

• The number of settlements with individuals is on the rise, projected to reach 568 for the year. Company settlements, on the other hand, are declining, and will total just 171 by year-end, which would be the lowest number in any full year since SOX. 
• 56% of SEC settlements with company defendants since SOX have included monetary penalties. 
• In 2007, the median company settlement dropped to $0.7 million, less than half the 2006 high of $1.5 million. 
• 43% of company payments have been in the form of disgorgement, and 57% in the form of civil penalties; for individuals, disgorgement penalties account for 88% of payments. 
• Insider trading is the most frequent allegation in SEC settlements for individuals; NERA projects 92 settlements with individuals will occur in 2008, compared to 52 in 2007.

In conjunction with the release of "SEC Settlements: A New Era Post-SOX," NERA is launching www.SecuritiesLitigationTrends.com, a Web site that features additional statistics and analysis, as well as a searchable database of documents relating to SEC settlements.

"NERA has been analyzing trends in securities litigation for more than 15 years," says Dr. Vinita Juneja, Senior Vice President and Chair of NERA's Global Securities and Finance Practice. "This new Web site provides researchers with the latest SEC settlement data and will offer easy, centralized access to future NERA reports and analyses of SEC settlements and shareholder class action trends."