The Securities And Exchange Commission: Principal Federal Regulatory Agency

1. The SEC is often called the “watchdog” of corporate America. How does it assist in preventing fraud?

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the US federal agency that holds the primary mandate to enforce federal securities laws and regulations to control the securities industry and the country’s stock exchange and regulation of all activities and organizations including the US electronic securities market. The SEC is committed to promoting a market environment that yields public trust characterized by integrity to attain its mission of protecting investors through maintenance of fair and efficient markets through facilitation of capital information (Basagne, 2010). The SEC financing is a major area of focus since there has been major concern regarding the SEC agency financing and whether they utilize the

The Securities and Exchange Commission has the mission of protecting investors by maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets. The SEC does this in a number of ways, and firms need to pay attention to these ways in order to ensure SEC compliance. The SEC has enforcement authority over a number of areas related to the nation's capital markets, including insider trading, accounting fraud, and providing false information. The SEC's jurisdiction extends to all securities that are traded publicly. Privately-held companies do not need to register with the SEC (SEC.gov, 2012).

The Security and Exchange Commission is the organization who monitors fraudulent transactions and insider trading. Some experts in ethical behavior consider inside trading the most dramatic form of utilitarian ethics.

The SEC assists in providing investors with reliable information upon which to make investment decision. The Securities Act of 1933 requires most companies planning to issue new securities to the public to submit a registration statement to the SEC for approval. The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 provides additional protection by requiring public companies and others to file detailed annual reports with the commission. Smackey Dog Food, need to file next forms:

The five divisions of the SEC are corporate finance, enforcement, economic and risk analysis, investment management, and trading and markets. The corporate

The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the U.S. government that was established in 1915 and charged with keeping American business competition free and fair. The FTC has no jurisdiction over banks and common carriers, which are under the supervision of other governmental agencies. It has five members, not more than three of whom may be members of the same political party, appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate, for seven-year terms. The act was part of the program of President Wilson to check the growth of monopoly and preserve competition as an effective regulator of business.

“There must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to people’s speculation with other money (pg 92).” The SEC was designed to keep security on Wall Street.

The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 was passed by congress to strengthen the government’s control of the financial markets. It was preceded by the Securities Exchange Act of 1933 which was enacted during the Great Depression in hopes that the stock market crash of 1929 would not be repeated. The basic difference between the two acts was that the 1933 Act was to govern the original sales of securities by requiring that the issuers, the companies offering the securities, offer up sufficient information about themselves and the securities so that the potential buyers could make informed decisions. The 1934 Act was

The SEC was created to help investors get reliable information about the company they are investing in. The Securities Act of 1933 requires most companies planning to issue new securities to the public to submit a registration statement to the SEC for approval. The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 provides additional protection by requiring public companies and others to file detailed annual reports with the commission. The SEC follows the GAAP’s reporting requirement for financial statements. As for Smackey Dog Food they are a

Increased statutory compliance: Public securities are required to comply with increased laws and regulations of the stock exchange and any other governing body; whereas, in private securities the organization is required to comply with minimum statutory requirements.

The investment banks, and subsequent stock brokerage firms, was regulated by the Security and Exchange Commission. The banking entities, in this portion of the financial sector, were used to dealing in high risk business that were structured on the business’ equity and debt capital, instead of the commercial banks’ deposits of customers. The activities in this sector of the financial system were underwriting stocks and bonds, insurance markets, the investments in subprime debt markets and mortgages.

The New York Stock Exchange has worked to become less exclusive to wealthy investors by opening itself to the public and allowing women to be on the exchange floor, something that was not allowed before 1943. Through its registration as a nonprofit organization and the government’s creation of the SEC, the New York Stock Exchange has worked to provide security for the public’s investments. Some of the security measures in place are requiring companies to provide detailed financial reports as well as financial operations. It has also worked to increase efficiency by upgrading technology to handle the workload of transactions that occur

Securities regulations began when Congress enacted the Securities Act of 1933 in reaction to the 1929 Stock Market Crash—the infamous start of the Great Depression. The legislature created the 1933 Act to safeguard the economy from experiencing another event like the Great Depression. The objective of the Securities Act of 1933 was to “require that investors receive financial and other significant information concerning securities being offered for public sale; and prohibit deceit, misrepresentations, and other fraud in the sale of securities.” In other words, the Securities Act of 1933 required issuers to fully disclose all material information that a reasonable shareholder would require in order to make up his or her mind about a potential investment. The Act focuses on governing offerings by issuers and creating transparency between issuers and investors so that investors receive more protection than prior to the Act.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Retrieve from: https://www.sec.gov/about/laws/soa2002.pdf. October 27, 2014.