As discussed here "live" last week, the SEC has rolled out a new series of measures designed to encourage greater cooperation from individuals and companies in the agency's investigations and enforcement actions. These tools include:

Cooperation Agreements - Formal written agreements in which the Enforcement Division agrees to recommend to the Commission that a cooperator receive credit for cooperating in investigations or related enforcement actions if the cooperator provides substantial assistance such as full and truthful information and testimony.

Deferred Prosecution Agreements - Formal written agreements in which the Commission agrees to forego an enforcement action against a cooperator if the individual or company agrees, among other things, to cooperate fully and truthfully and to comply with express prohibitions and undertakings during a period of deferred prosecution.

Non-prosecution Agreements - Formal written agreements, entered into under limited and appropriate circumstances, in which the Commission agrees not to pursue an enforcement action against a cooperator if the individual or company agrees, among other things, to cooperate fully and truthfully and comply with express undertakings.

In addition, the SEC has, for the first time, laid out four general considerations that it will evaluate to determine whether, how much, and in what manner to credit cooperation by individuals:

The assistance provided by the cooperating individual;

The importance of the underlying matter in which the individual cooperated;

The societal interest in ensuring the individual is held accountable for his or her misconduct; and

The appropriateness of cooperation credit based upon the risk profile of the cooperating individual.

Today, via Compliance Building, I learned that the SEC has also created a separate page on its website collecting resources related to this Enforcement Cooperation Initiative. On this page, users can learn more details about the SEC's new cooperation tools and procedures, find links to specific documents such as the cooperation-related provisions of the SEC's Enforcement Manual, find links to contact the Enforcement Division, and more.

How about a bounty program rewarding whistleblowers and cooperators for their efforts? This much-discussed idea does not appear on the Enforcement Cooperation Initiative page because, to date, it still does not exists. Such a program was included in the Investor Protection Act recently passed by the House of Representatives, however, and will likely be considered by the U.S. Senate later this year. If that becomes law, then this new page on the SEC website may really start to get some traffic.