SEC

(noun)

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (frequently abbreviated SEC) is a federal agency[2] which holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets in the United States.

Related Terms

Examples of SEC in the following topics:

  • Securities Act of 1933

    • Unless they qualify for an exemption, securities offered or sold to the public in the U.S. must be registered by filing a registration statement with the SEC.
    • The SEC prescribes the relevant forms on which an issuer's securities must be registered.
    • Once this statement is registered with and approved by the SEC, its data and forecasts are placed in a prospectus for potential investors.
    • Rule 144, promulgated by the SEC under the 1933 Act, permits, under limited circumstances, the sale of restricted and controlled securities without registration.
    • If certain requirements are met, Form 144 must be filed with the SEC.

  • Securities Acts Amendments of 1975

    • Regulation NMS (or Reg NMS — Regulation National Market System) is a regulation promulgated and defined by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as "a series of initiatives designed to modernize and strengthen the national market system for equity securities. " It was established in 2007 and seeks to foster both "competition among individual markets and competition among individual orders" in order to promote efficient and fair price formation across securities markets.
    • In 1972, before the SEC began its pursuit of a national market system, the market for securities was quite fragmented.
    • In 1975, Congress authorized the SEC to facilitate a national market system.
    • The amendments are direct SEC to enable the establishment of a National Market System.

  • Global Research Settlement

    • The Global Settlement was an enforcement agreement to address issues of conflict of interest within the SEC and other big investment companies.
    • The Global Settlement was an enforcement agreement reached on April 28, 2003 between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and ten of the United States's largest investment firms.

  • Securities Exchange Act of 1934

    • The 1934 Act also established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency primarily responsible for enforcement of United States federal securities law.
    • In 1938, the Exchange Act was amended by the Maloney Act, which authorized the formation and registration of national securities associations to supervise the conduct of their members subject to the oversight of the SEC.
    • Reg ATS, an SEC regulation issued in the late 1990s, requires these small markets to 1) register as a broker with the NASD, 2) register as an exchange, or 3) operate as an unregulated ATS, staying under low trading caps.
    • Provided that the company has more than a certain number of shareholders and has a certain amount of assets (500 shareholders, above $10 million in assets, per sections 12, 13, and 15 of the Act), the '34 Act requires that issuers regularly file company information with the SEC on certain forms (the annual 10-K filing and the quarterly 10-Q filing).

  • Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002

    • It also defines the SEC's authority to censure or bar securities professionals from practice and defines conditions under which a person can be barred from practicing as a broker, advisor, or dealer.
    • Title VII consists of five sections and requires the Comptroller General and the SEC to perform various studies and report their findings.
    • This enables the SEC to resort to temporarily freezing transactions or payments that have been deemed "large" or "unusual".

  • Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002

    • It also defines the SEC's authority to censure securities professionals from practice and defines conditions under which a person can be barred from practicing as a broker, advisor, or dealer.
    • Title VII consists of five sections and requires the Comptroller General and the SEC to perform various studies and report their findings.

  • Bond Rating System

    • Credit rating agencies registered as such with the SEC are "Nationally recognized statistical rating organizations. " The following firms are currently registered as NRSROs: A.M.

  • Reverse Splits

  • Employee Stock Compensation

    • However, through September 2006, over 350 companies have publicly disclosed the use of a binomial model in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings.

  • The United States Banking System

    • In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires publicly traded companies (i.e. a company sells stock to the public) to disclose financial information based on acceptable accounting standards.