The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had a record year for enforcement activity in fiscal 2014, the regulator’s chair, Mary Jo White, announced today at a regulatory conference in Toronto.

Speaking to the Ontario Securities Commission’s (OSC) annual conference, known as Dialogue with the OSC, White revealed that the SEC filed a record 755 enforcement actions during its latest fiscal year. And, she said that it obtained orders for disgorgement and penalties of just under US$4.2 billion. In the previous year, the commission filed 686 enforcement actions and obtained orders for sanctions totaling US$3.4 billion.

“Aggressive enforcement against wrongdoers who harm investors and threaten our financial markets remains a top priority, and we brought and will continue to bring creative and important enforcement actions across a broad range of the securities markets,” White said.

At the conference, White and OSC chair, Howard Wetston, discussed the merits of no-contest settlements, which have long been used by the SEC, and were recently used for the first time in a case brought by the OSC. The regulatory chiefs also noted that their organizations cooperate with one another and routinely share information to aid investigations. White said that she couldn’t see how the SEC’s relationship with the OSC could be much better when it comes to cooperation and collaboration.

She also lauded the SEC’s whistleblower program as a source of high quality information that has led to a number of successful enforcement actions. Recently, the SEC paid out its largest ever award under that program, of approximately $35 million. The OSC has been considering the introduction of its own whistleblower program over the past couple of years, and is planning to release a paper on the issue later this year.