Critics say it's all just business as usual for an agency that, in the last eight years, failed to detect the accounting irregularities at Enron, the mutual fund late-trading activities, the subprime securities bubble, and mounting evidence that there has been trading ahead of major deal announcements.
However, financial industry lobbyists were successful in having Glass-Steagall repealed in 1999, which resulted in banks becoming heavily involved in brokerage, mutual fund, and proprietary tradingactivities, as well as the packaging and promotion of questionable investment products like sub-prime mortgages.