The senior staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Enforcement Division gets to keep its authority to issue subpoenas, a power granted to it on a pilot basis last year in an effort to speed the pace of investigations.

This time last year, the Commission adopted a rule that, for the first time, delegated its enforcement director, Robert Khuzami, with legal authority to issue formal orders of investigation—and therefore subpoenas—without getting prior approval from the agency's five commissioners. Khuzami in turn delegated that power to other senior enforcement officials.

The move was part of a broader effort to reinvigorate SEC enforcement following the Bernard Madoff debacle. The idea was to expedite the investigative process. Previously, the enforcement staff had to seek approval from the agency's five commissioners, creating a speedbump that was blamed for slowing the pace of probes.

That rule included a sunset provision so the Commission could evaluate the Division's use of the delegation. The authority would have expired this week. However, the SEC amended its rules to remove the sunset provision from the delegation of authority.

According to the rule filing, "The Commission has determined that it is appropriate to extend the Division's authority to issue formal orders of investigation. In making this determination, the Commission considered the increased efficiency in the Division's conduct of its investigations permitted by the delegation, and the Division's continued effective communication and coordination in addressing pertinent legal and policy issues with other Commission Divisions and Offices when formal order authority is invoked."