SEC 2026 Exam Priorities Chart: What Five Years of Data Reveal About Your Examination Risk

When the SEC’s Division of Examinations published its 2026 Examination Priorities, most compliance officers did what they always do: they read the document and noted what was new. That single-year read is necessary, but it is not sufficient.

What compliance officers rarely have is a mapped, cross-referenced view of stated exam priorities from 2022 through 2026. We built that picture. And what it reveals is something that any single year’s priorities letter cannot tell you: which areas represent standing program requirements where examiners have spent years developing mature testing methodology, and which areas are newly elevated with scrutiny just beginning to sharpen.

Here is what the data shows.

Recurring Priorities That Have Appeared Every Year Since 2022

Over a dozen priorities have appeared on the SEC exam list every single year since 2022. That group includes the following areas:

• Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) and RIA fiduciary duty
• Form CRS
• Private fund advisers
• Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
• Fees and expenses calculation
• Information Security (Regulations S-P and S-ID)
• Broker-dealer financial responsibility (Customer Protection Rule and Net Capital Rule)

Five consecutive years means these are not trends, they are program expectations. Examiners now know exactly what adequate looks like, what weak looks like, and what will generate a finding. Firms that treat these areas as "background" compliance are the ones most likely to generate avoidable findings.

Get the full comparison chart here

What Is New and Elevated in 2026

Several priorities are newly named or significantly elevated this year. Each one warrants attention from affected firms now.

Artificial Intelligence. Elevated to a standalone exam priority in 2025 and continued in 2026. The SEC will examine how registrants use AI in compliance functions, investment management, and client-facing tools. If your firm uses AI-assisted tools in any of these areas, governance documentation is now an examination requirement.

Cash Sweep Programs and Prime Brokerage. New in 2026. Added to the BD financial responsibility section. Examiners will assess concentration risk, liquidity, and counterparty credit. Broker-dealers with significant cash sweep programs should assess their disclosures and risk controls against this new focus area now.

M&A and Consolidation of Advisory Firms. New in 2026. Examiners will assess whether acquiring firms have identified and managed the conflicts and operational complexity that consolidation creates.

Fund Names Rule (Rule 35d-1). Compliance dates arrive in June and December 2026. Registered funds and their advisers need to confirm they are on track.

Activist Engagement Filings. New examination focus on RIA filing accuracy and timeliness - Schedules 13D/13G, Form 13F, Forms 3/4/5, and Form N-PX.

Extended Hours Trading and Regulation NMS Rule 605. Both newly named in the 2026 BD section.

The Crypto Shift: What It Means, and What It Does Not

Crypto assets are no longer a stated examination priority under the current SEC leadership. This is a meaningful policy shift from the prior four years. Firms with crypto-related business lines will notice the change.

What the de-prioritization does not mean: AML and sanctions compliance obligations remain fully in force for crypto-adjacent firms. Both appear on the 2026 list as they have every year since 2022 for AML and since 2023 for sanctions. Firms that read the absence of a crypto headline as a general relaxation of scrutiny in this space do so at their own risk.

The Four Areas Generating the Most Examination Findings Right Now

Based on our five-year analysis and our practitioners’ direct experience supporting firms through SEC examinations, these four areas are generating the highest volume of examination findings for broker-dealers and RIAs in the current cycle.

Marketing Rule (Rule 206(4)-1). Four consecutive years as a stated priority. Three years past the compliance date. Examiners have a mature baseline for what compliant advertising, testimonial disclosures, and performance presentations look like. If your Marketing Rule review was conducted at adoption and has not been revisited since, assume there are gaps.

Fees, Expenses, and Compensation. Five consecutive years. The SEC’s ongoing scrutiny of advisory fee calculation (how AUM is compiled, how tiered schedules are applied, how terminated accounts are billed) makes this an area where firms should conduct regular internal testing, not just annual review.

RIA Compliance Programs. Elevated to a standalone headline priority in 2024 and confirmed again in 2025 and 2026. Examiners are assessing compliance program quality, not just existence. An annual review report that cannot be connected to actual testing, personnel interviews, and remediation tracking will not satisfy an experienced examiner.

Information Security / Regulation S-P. Five consecutive years. For smaller entities, the Reg S-P compliance deadline is June 3, 2026, only three weeks away. If your Reg S-P program has not been reviewed and updated to reflect the amended rule, that deadline is not a warning. It is already here.

Bates Group helps firms prepare for and respond to SEC exams, investigations, and enforcement matters with services tailored to the SEC’s 2026 exam priorities and your firm’s specific risk profile.

Our BD/RIA compliance and Regulatory & Investigations practitioners support broker-dealers and registered investment advisers at every stage of the examination cycle: from pre-exam preparation and mock examinations through response, deficiency letter remediation, and investigation defense when examinations escalate.

For the 2026 priorities specifically, we offer:

• Examination gap assessments mapping the 2026 SEC priorities against your firm’s specific business lines, products, and compensation arrangements
• Annual compliance program reviews designed to the standard examiners actually apply, with testing, documentation, and remediation tracking
• Marketing Rule reviews, including advertising content, testimonial disclosures, performance presentations, and third-party endorsement agreements
• Reg S-P compliance support, including policy review, vendor oversight assessment, and incident response plan development ahead of the June 3 deadline
• Mock examinations simulating the SEC document request and examination process to identify gaps before examiners do
• Regulatory investigation support if an examination has escalated or you have received a document request or Wells notice

Contact Bates Group today to discuss your 2026 examination readiness.