The Securities and Exchange Commission is nearing completion of a formula for punishing companies that improperly back-dated stock options, clearing a logjam that has held up dozens of cases and frustrated its enforcement staff.

The SEC’s staff negotiated a tentative settlement in the first stock options case, against Brocade, the world’s largest maker of data storage switches, nearly a year ago, but the deal ran into trouble because commissioners could not agree on how large a penalty to impose. Other cases have backed up because staff have not wanted to suggest penalties until they had a better sense of what the commission would decide in relation to Brocade, people close to the matter said.