SEC's Atkins hopes subprime probes resolved soon

By Karey Wutkowski

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Securities and Exchange Commission official said on Wednesday he hoped the agency could resolve any enforcement actions related to the subprime mortgage crisis more quickly than past widespread problems such as market timing.

The regulator is still investigating the market timing five years after the scandal broke.

Commissioner Paul Atkins said it will benefit the marketplace and the overall economy for the SEC to move quickly to determine what, if any, securities laws were broken and to resolve any enforcement actions.

"All of that we'll hopefully be able to clear up pretty soon," he said at the Reuters Regulation Summit in Washington.

The SEC has opened about three dozen investigations including those that involve major banks. Both Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Merrill Lynch (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have disclosed that government investigators have sought information about their subprime activities.

Atkins said the agency was still dealing with some of the leftover cases from the market timing and late trading scandal of 2003 that uncovered illegal practices by some hedge fund and mutual fund companies.

"I would hope we could do it much more quickly than that," he said of the agency's subprime probes.

Other agencies and regulators, including the FBI, have announced that they are investigating the financial services industry. The FBI said last week that it was working with the SEC in its probe of 14 companies.  Continued...