According to Reuters today, the SEC is planning on beefing up its New York office staff by about 8% this year, partly to focus more efforts on regulating the NY hedge fund industry:

The agency plans to hire 18 people on the enforcement side, where it currently employs about 150 people in New York, and add 15 people to its examinations staff, which currently numbers about 210 in New York, Mr. Canellos said at the Reuters Private Equity and Hedge Funds Summit in New York.

The push to hire more lawyers, accountants and even former traders comes at a time that the agency is seeking to become more aggressive in going after the bad guys on Wall Street.

This comes on the heels of comments made by Bruce Karpati, the co-chief of the SEC’s asset management unit, pushing for hedge fund registration.   Mr. Karpati is hoping for more disclosures by hedge fund managers and stated at a recent conference:

“When you have more (hedge fund advisers) that are registered, we will have more access to information,”

As congress makes slow progress on its regulatory reform bill, the SEC is clearly gearing up for the expected registration of hedge fund managers.