This year will go down in history as the Securities and ExchangeCommission's highest ever in enforcement actions filed.

The SEC said Thursday its enforcement division filed 735enforcement actions in its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. Morethan $2.8 billion in penalties and disgorgement were ordered behindthose actions.

The numbers includes many cases involving highly complexproducts, transactions and market practices, including thoserelated to the financial crisis as well as insider trading bymarket professionals, according to the SEC.

Thirty-six cases related to the financial crisis involving someof the country's biggest banks have been filed since 2008, thecommission said. Nearly half of the 81 defendants in those caseswere CEOs, chief financial officers and senior corporateexecutives, resulting in approximately $1.97 billion indisgorgement, penalties and other monetary relief obtained.

The SEC said it filed 146 actions related to investment advisersand investment companies, a single-year record and a 30% increaseover FY 2010. The SEC also brought 112 enforcement actions relatedto broker-dealers, which was a 60% increase over last year.

Insider trading cases were up nearly 8% over 2010, according tothe SEC. The agency also brought 89 actions in FY 2011 forfinancial fraud and disclosure violations.