Christina+Rix

__**Presentation outline: The SEC ( Securities and Exchange Commission)**__
Due to the rising interest in investment in the stock exchange, and a lack of security, almost half of the published securities in the period after the First World War became worthless. The Congress passed the Securities Act of 1933 during the peak year of the depression. With the Securities Act of 1934 the Congress created the SEC in order to force the newly-passed securities laws to promote stability in the markets and to protect investors.
 * The creation of the SEC**

The Acts of 1933 and 1934 were designed to restore investor confidence in our capital markets by providing investors and the markets with more reliable information and clear rules of honest dealing. They contain two common sense notions. First, companies that are publicly offering securities for investment, must tell the public the truth about their businesses and the securities they are selling, as well as the risks involved in investing. Secondly, the "People who sell and trade securities – brokers, dealers, and exchanges – must treat investors fairly and honestly, putting investors' interests first"².
 * The Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934**

Another important Act enacted by the Congress of the U. S. is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. It changed Corporate Governance for companies, the regulation of accounting firms, and created the PCAOB. It applies to all companies that underlie the Securities Act of 1934.
 * The Sarbanes-Oxley Act**

Rulemaking within the SEC is divided into tree common parts, the Concept Release, followed by the Rule Proposal and summed up by the Rule Adoption.
 * Rulemaking within the SEC**

The SEC is organized by 5 Commissioners, with one of them as the Chairman of the Commission (CEO) and no more than 3 of the commissioners should belong to the same political party. To allocate the responsibilities within the Commission the structure is split into 4 Divisions that are supported by 18 Offices. The Commission employs approx. 3,800 employees at the headquarters in Washington, DC as well as the 11 regional offices in the US.
 * The Organization of the SEC**

There are several violations, that require the SEC to investigate. Some of them are the manipulation of market prices of securities as well as the selling of unregistered securities.
 * Violations for Investigations**

1) What is Sarbanes-Oxley?, Guy P. Lander, McGraw-Hill, 2004 2) U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, About the SEC, What we do. Available: http://www.sec.gov/about/whatwedo.shtml [Accessed between 28th October and 24th November, 2007]
 * Sources**:

Here below is the slideshow of Christina's presentation

media type="custom" key="342501"

Unfortunately, there was a problem with the upload (p. 13) which I will try to solve)

Here you find a link to the speech of G. W. Bush when he signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on the 30th July 2002.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/07/20020730.a.ram

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