The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to boost its staff by 15 percent, in its budget request for the 2014 fiscal year.
The federal watchdog of securities markets is seeking $1.7 billion to support 5,180 positions, up from $1.4 billion in support of 4,504.
The additional 676 positions that the SEC wants to create and fill include 45 positions in the Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation (RSFI), some of which would support the analysis of high-frequency trading data and market structure issues by the Division of Trading and Markets, the agency said in its budget request to Congress this week.
The request also seeks 25 added positions in the Division of Trading and Markets and the National Examination Program to help monitor and evaluate risk management systems being used by clearing agencies.
“Without these additional resources, the mismatch between the amount of regulated clearing activity and staffing will be exacerbated,’’ the agency said, as new clearing agencies set up shot in markets where interest-rate and credit-default swaps start to trade in electronic fashion.
The RSFI plans to hire economists with expertise in analyzing not just high frequency trading data and market structure issues, but executive compensation and corporate governance as well as complex structured products.
That division also plans to hire computer scientists with mathematical and statistical programming experience to support risk assessment and risk metrics, analytics, rulemaking, and economic analysis interpretive questions that relate to those filings and other matters relating to the companies making them.
The SEC said its “current level of resources is not sufficient to keep pace with the growing size and complexity of the securities markets.’’
The SEC oversees approximately 35,000 organizations, including about 11,000 investment advisers, 9,700 mutual funds and exchange traded funds, 4,600 broker-dealers with more than 160,000 branch offices. The SEC also has responsibility for reviewing the disclosures and financial statements of approximately 9,500 reporting companies.
The budget also request $56 million for added technology initiatives, including enhancements to the watchdog’s system for receiving tips, complaints, and referrals.
