“The Securities and Exchange Commission intends to make companies and individuals admit wrongdoing as a condition of settling civil charges in certain cases, or be forced to fight the charges in court, the agency’s Chairman Mary Jo White said Tuesday.

The move marks a watershed change to the SEC’s decades-old policy of allowing companies and individuals to settle charges without admitting or denying liability.

The SEC’s new leadership, under Ms. White, has decided to require companies to accept liability in certain cases where the agency wants to send a tough deterrent message.

The new policy, which came out of a review Ms. White began when she joined the agency in the spring, will be applied in “cases where…it’s very important to have that public acknowledgment [of wrongdoing] and accountability,” she told reporters at a Wall Street Journal CFO Network conference in Washington, D.C.”

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