Securities and Exchange Commission: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

SEC redirects here. For other uses, see SEC (disambiguation)

The Securities and Exchange Commission, commonly referred to as the SEC, is the United States governing body which has primary responsibility for overseeing the regulation of the securities industry. It enforces, among other acts, the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisors Act. It removed regulatory authority from the Federal Trade Commission.

The SEC has five Commissioners who are appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate. Their terms last five years and are staggered so that one Commissioner's term ends on June 5 of each year. To ensure that the SEC remains non-partisan, no more than three Commissioners may belong to the same political party. The President also designates one of the Commissioners as Chairman, the SEC's top executive.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., father of future President John F. Kennedy, to serve as the first Chairman of the SEC. For a list of other appointees, see: Securities and Exchange Commission appointees.

Related legislation

• 1964 - Securities Act Amendments PL 88-467
• 1968 - Securities Disclosure Act PL 90-439
• 1975 - Securities and Exchange Act PL 94-29
• 1980 - Depository Institutions and Deregulation Money Control Act PL 96-221
• 1982 - Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act PL 97-320
• 1984 - Insider Trading Sanctions Act PL 98-376
• 1988 - Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act PL 100-704
• 1989 - Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement PL 101-73
• 1999 - Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act PL 106-102
• 2002 - Sarbanes-Oxley Act

See also: Financial supervision