The mission of the
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation. Before the Great Crash of 1929, there was little support for federal regulation of the securities markets. This was particularly true during the post-World War I surge of securities activity. Proposals that the federal government require financial disclosure and prevent the fraudulent sale of stock were never seriously pursued. During the peak year of the Depression, Congress passed the
Securities Act of 1933. This law, together with the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which created the SEC, was designed to restore investor confidence in capital markets by providing investors and the markets with more reliable information and clear rules of honest dealing. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Joseph P. Kennedy (President John F. Kennedy's father) to serve as the first Chairman of the SEC. (Read the SEC’s
What We Do and access digital archives from 1929 to 2010 containing
Commission Speeches and Public Statements on a wide range of topics concerning the state of the markets and the regulatory agenda.)
