The Securities and Exchange Commission was created in 1934 under the Securities Exchange Act. That Act transferred to the Commission the administration of the Securities Act of 1933, formerly administered by the Federal Trade Commission. Subsequent laws assigned to the Securities and Exchange Commission for administration are: Trust Indenture Act of 1939, Investment Company Act of 1940, and Investment Advisers Act of 1940. In addition, under the Bankruptcy Code, the Commission is a statutory party in cases arising under chapters 9 and 11. Considered together, the laws administered by the Commission provided for the following.
(a) Public disclosure of pertinent facts concerning public offerings of securities and securities listed on national securities exchanges and certain securities traded in the over-the-counter markets.
(b) Enforcement of disclosure requirements in the soliciting of proxies for meetings of security holders by companies whose securities are registered pursuant to section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and their subsidiaries and investment companies.
(c) Regulation of the trading in securities on national securities exchanges and in the over-the-counter markets.
(d) Investigation of securities frauds, manipulations, and other violations, and the imposition and enforcement of legal sanctions therefor.
(e) Registration, and the regulation of certain activities, of brokers, dealers and investment advisers.
(f) Supervision of the activities of mutual funds and other investment companies.
(g) Administration of statutory standards governing protective and other provisions of trust indentures under which debt securities are sold to the public.
(h) Protection of the interests of public investors involved in bankruptcy reorganization cases and in bankruptcy cases involving the adjustment of debts of a municipality.
(i) Administrative sanctions, injunctive remedies, civil money penalties and criminal prosecution. There are also private rights of action for investors injured by violations of the Acts.
[27 FR 12712, Dec. 22, 1962, as amended at 43 FR 13375, Mar. 30, 1978; 49 FR 12684, Mar. 30, 1984; 60 FR 14623, Mar. 20, 1995; 60 FR 32794, June 23, 1995; 76 FR 71874, Nov. 21, 2011]