The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has had a busy few years. Dealing with the fallout from the financial crisis of 2008 was no small task, as the agency helped exact sizable settlements from some of the world's biggest financial institutions. As the commission was resolving these matters, a new sheriff rode into town in the form of Mary Jo White, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and ex-litigation chair of Debevoise & Plimpton who was sworn in as the SEC's new chairwoman in 2013.

The rise of White as SEC boss has created some changing dynamics at the commission, and led to questions about what's coming next. It's hard to tell exactly what the future holds, but here are a few trends worth watching:

1. More Enforcement on Infractions Big and Small

It's likely there will always be disagreements from different parts of the political spectrum about how well the SEC is doing its job, but what's certain is that there is a whole lot of enforcement activity going on. In the 2014 fiscal year, the commission filed 755 enforcement actions, an agency record.