The phrases have become all too familiar: “toxic” products combined with a “serious lack of compliance”, along with a “deterioration in the quality of loans originated versus the pricing”. Angelo Mozilo, former Countrywide chief executive, so described parts of the company’s business in e-mails to fellow executives in 2006 – according to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission – while assuring investors Countrywide was predominantly a prime lender. On Thursday, the watchdog charged Mr Mozilo and two of his former colleagues with misleading investors – slapping Mr Mozilo with an insider trading charge for good measure.

That the first charges against mortgage industry executives have landed at Countrywide is perhaps no surprise. The SEC has been investigating Mr Mozilo’s stock sales since October 2007 – and Countrywide, bought by Bank of America in 2008, is something of a poster child for lax lending standards in the subprime boom and bust. But pressing ahead with this civil case suggests a newly aggressive approach from the SEC with Mary Shapiro in the chair – and, perhaps, a determination to bring high-profile cases resulting from the financial crisis to fruition swiftly.