Senate Bill Would Target SEC Fees, Salaries

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee unveiled a bill that would cut fees collected by the Securities and Exchange Commission while boosting pay for SEC professionals.

The legislation would reduce fees collected on stock transactions and the amounts charged for securities registrations and mergers and tender offers. The measure also aims to help stem turnover among SEC professionals by putting the agency’s pay on a par with the higher pay at the federal banking agencies.

The SEC last year collected more than $2.2 billion in fees, according to the Security Traders Assn. Part of the fee money collected by the SEC helps finance the agency, though most is deposited in the U.S. Treasury for general government use.

The SEC has said that its professionals are paid less than their counterparts at the banking regulatory agencies, which have more freedom to set salaries than other U.S. agencies. For example, last year a second-year attorney at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. made about $91,400 a year compared with about $66,000 for an equivalent SEC lawyer, the SEC said.