Aggressive efforts to combat insider trading a re helping U.S. securities regulators boost the number of settlements they reach with individual defendants, a new report has found. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has settled 286 cases with individuals in the first half of its 2012 fiscal year, a pace that puts the agency on track for a 20 percent jump in individual settlements over fiscal 2011, an analysis by NERA Economic Consulting said. The report could help the SEC in its effort to be seen as a tough enforcement agency, especially after failing to catch convicted Ponzi swindlers Bernard Madoff and Allen Stanford. Read Reuters report here.
