U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government. The SEC was created during the aftermath of "Black Tuesday". Its purpose is to protect investors and enforce laws regarding the stock market.
Agency overview | |
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Formed | June 6, 1934 |
Jurisdiction | United States federal government |
Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
Employees | 4,301 (2015)[1] |
Agency executive |
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Website | www.sec.gov |
Purpose
changeThe SEC holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws, proposing securities rules, and regulating the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other activities and organizations, including the electronic securities markets in the United States.[2]
In addition to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which created it, the SEC enforces the Securities Act of 1933, the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, and other statutes. The SEC was created by Section 4 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (now codified as 15 U.S.C. § 78d and commonly referred to as the Exchange Act or the 1934 Act).
Chairs
changeJoseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was the first Chair of the SEC. Later SEC commissioners and chairmen include William O. Douglas, Jerome Frank (one of the leaders of the legal realism movement), and William J. Casey (who later headed the Central Intelligence Agency under President Ronald Reagan).
The current chair is Gary Gensler serving since 2021 after being nominated by President Joe Biden.
No. | Portrait | Name | State of residency | Term of office | Appointed by | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Term start | Term end | Time in office | |||||
1 | Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. | Massachusetts | June 30, 1934 | September 23, 1935 | 1 year, 85 days | Roosevelt | |
2 | James M. Landis | Massachusetts | September 23, 1935 | September 15, 1937 | 1 year, 357 days | Roosevelt | |
3 | William O. Douglas | Connecticut | August 17, 1937 | April 15, 1939 | 1 year, 241 days | Roosevelt | |
4 | Jerome Frank | Illinois | May 18, 1939 | April 9, 1941 | 1 year, 326 days | Roosevelt | |
5 | Edward C. Eicher | Iowa | April 9, 1941 | January 20, 1942 | 286 days | Roosevelt | |
6 | Ganson Purcell | January 20, 1942 | June 30, 1946 | 4 years, 161 days | Roosevelt | ||
7 | James J. Caffrey | July 23, 1946 | December 31, 1947 | 1 year, 161 days | Truman | ||
8 | Edmond M. Hanrahan | New York | May 18, 1948 | November 3, 1949 | 1 year, 169 days | Truman | |
9 | Harry A. McDonald | November 4, 1949 | February 25, 1952 | 2 years, 113 days | Truman | ||
10 | Donald C. Cook | Michigan | February 26, 1952 | June 17, 1953 | 1 year, 111 days | Truman | |
11 | Ralph H. Demmler | Pennsylvania | June 27, 1953 | May 25, 1955 | 1 year, 332 days | Eisenhower | |
12 | J. Sinclair Armstrong | New York | May 25, 1955 | June 27, 1957 | 2 years, 33 days | Eisenhower | |
13 | Edward N. Gadsby | Massachusetts | August 20, 1957 | March 26, 1961 | 3 years, 218 days | Eisenhower | |
14 | William L. Cary | March 27, 1961 | August 20, 1964 | 3 years, 146 days | Kennedy | ||
15 | Manuel F. Cohen | August 20, 1964 | February 22, 1969 | 4 years, 186 days | Johnson | ||
16 | Hamer H. Budge | Idaho | February 22, 1969 | January 2, 1971 | 1 year, 314 days | Nixon | |
17 | William J. Casey | New York | April 14, 1971 | February 2, 1973 | 1 year, 294 days | Nixon | |
18 | G. Bradford Cook | Nebraska | March 3, 1973 | May 16, 1973 | 74 days | Nixon | |
19 | Ray Garrett Jr. | Illinois | August 6, 1973 | October 28, 1975 | 2 years, 83 days | Nixon | |
20 | Roderick M. Hills | California | October 28, 1975 | April 10, 1977 | 1 year, 164 days | Ford | |
21 | Harold M. Williams | California | April 18, 1977 | March 1, 1981 | 3 years, 317 days | Carter | |
22 | John S. R. Shad | May 6, 1981 | June 18, 1987 | 6 years, 43 days | Reagan | ||
23 | David Sturtevant Ruder | Illinois | August 7, 1987 | September 30, 1989 | 2 years, 54 days | Reagan | |
24 | Richard C. Breeden | New York | October 11, 1989 | May 7, 1993 | 3 years, 208 days | Bush Sr. | |
– | Mary Schapiro (acting) | New York | May 7, 1993 | July 27, 1993 | 81 days | Clinton | |
25 | Arthur Levitt | New York | July 27, 1993 | February 9, 2001 | 7 years, 227 days | Clinton | |
26 | Harvey Pitt | New York | August 3, 2001 | February 18, 2003 | 1 year, 199 days | Bush Jr. | |
27 | William H. Donaldson | New York | February 18, 2003 | June 30, 2005 | 2 years, 132 days | Bush Jr. | |
28 | Christopher Cox | California | August 3, 2005 | January 20, 2009 | 3 years, 170 days | Bush Jr. | |
29 | Mary Schapiro | New York | January 27, 2009 | December 14, 2012 | 3 years, 322 days | Obama | |
30 | Elisse B. Walter | New York | December 14, 2012 | April 10, 2013 | 117 days | Obama | |
31 | Mary Jo White | New York | April 10, 2013 | January 20, 2017 | 3 years, 285 days | Obama | |
– | Michael Piwowar (acting) | Washington D.C. | January 20, 2017 | May 4, 2017 | 104 days | Trump | |
32 | Jay Clayton | Pennsylvania | May 4, 2017 | December 23, 2020 | 3 years, 233 days | Trump | |
– | Elad Roisman (acting) | Washington D.C. | December 24, 2020 | January 20, 2021 | 27 days | Trump | |
– | Allison Lee (acting) | Washington D.C. | January 20, 2021 | April 17, 2021 | 87 days | Biden | |
33 | Gary Gensler | Maryland | April 17, 2021 | Incumbent | 3 years, 232 days | Biden | |
Nominee | Paul S. Atkins | North Carolina | TBD | Trump |
References
change- ↑ FY 2017 Congressional Budget Justification (PDF). U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2016. p. 14.
- ↑ SEC (June 10, 2013). "What We Do". SEC.gov. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 2017-03-24.