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In a move aimed at reassuring investors that fairness is being restored to the financial marketplace, President Obama last week announced that he is requesting a 12 percent increase in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) FY2011 budget. If enacted, the president’s request would infuse more than 100 new enforcement staffers into the SEC as it continues to take on a rapidly growing case load.

Since Chairman Mary Schapiro took the helm of the embattled agency in February 2009, we’ve seen a significant uptick in enforcement actions and related monetary penalties; revitalized efforts to keep up with financial “innovations” that could lead to future market abuses; and aggressive new investigative tactics brought to bear as the SEC seeks to rebuild its watchdog credentials. Increased funding will mean we can expect even more of the same in the months and years to come.

That’s not just because the SEC will have greater access to resources. In a budget year that will see freezes and cuts across a wide array of federal programs, those agencies fortunate enough to actually see increases will be expected to produce results above and beyond the status quo.

With Congress and the White House holding the SEC to a higher standard, there’s little doubt that the SEC will be holding market participants to a higher standard as well.

Michael W. Robinson is a Senior Vice President and Chair of the Corporate Practice at Levick Strategic Communications, the nation's top crisis communications firm. He is also a contributing author to Bulletproof Blog. Connect with Levick on Twitter: @Levick.