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

The 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.