Private credit, retail fraud top SEC's enforcement priority list

The new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division is keeping an eye on stress in the private credit market and retail investor fraud, signaling the top cop's priorities a week into the job.

"Our focus is, and will remain, on protecting investors and safeguarding markets from real harm," SEC Enforcement Director David Woodcock said in a speech Wednesday at a Managed Funds Association conference in New York.

Woodcock's broader priorities mirror those telegraphed by Chairman Paul Atkins, who has said the SEC would focus on "back to basics" targets like disclosure fraud, insider trading and market manipulation. Woodcock emphasized that while the number of SEC enforcement actions have dropped during the second Trump administration he supports "quality over quantity."

The new enforcement head said re-establishing a retail task force was "one of my earliest priorities." Former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton had launched a retail task force in 2017 to focus on misconduct impacting mom-and-pop investors.

He also said the agency is keeping an eye on the $1.8 trillion private credit market, after some funds saw a surge in redemption requests and limited withdrawals.

"There are stresses in some portfolios and developments playing out more broadly across this sector, and we are monitoring the situation," Woodcock said.

READ MORE: SEC monitoring 'emerging pressures' in private credit space

Atkins earlier this month said the agency was investigating allegations of fraud in private credit firms, without naming any companies under scrutiny.

Woodcock joined the SEC after Margaret "Meg" Ryan suddenly resigned from the agency's top enforcement job in March. He is a former Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partner who headed the SEC's Fort Worth, Texas office from 2011 to 2015.