The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, also known as the "Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act" and "Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency Act" and more commonly called Sarbanes–Oxley, Sarbox or SOX, is a United States federal law that set new or expanded requirements for all U.S. public company boards, management and public accounting firms. A number of provisions of the Act also apply to privately held companies, such as the willful destruction of evidence to impede a federal investigation.
The Securities Act of 1933, also known as the 1933 Act, the Securities Act, the Truth in Securities Act, the Federal Securities Act, and the '33 Act, was enacted by the United States Congress on May 27, 1933, during the Great Depression, after the stock market crash of 1929. Legislated pursuant to the Interstate Commerce Clause of the Constitution, it requires every offer or sale of securities that uses the means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce to be registered with the SEC pursuant to the 1933 Act, unless an exemption from registration exists under the law. The term "means and instrumentalities of interstate commerce" is extremely broad and it is virtually impossible to avoid the operation of the statute by attempting to offer or sell a security without using an "instrumentality" of interstate commerce. Any use of a telephone, for example, or the mails would probably be enough to subject the transaction to the statute.
The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is a law governing the secondary trading of securities in the United States of America. A landmark of wide-ranging legislation, the Act of '34 and related statutes form the basis of regulation of the financial markets and their participants in the United States. The 1934 Act also established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency primarily responsible for enforcement of United States federal securities law.
The Investment Company Act of 1940 is an act of Congress. It was passed as a United States Public Law on August 22, 1940, and is codified at 15 U.S.C. §§ 80a-1–80a-64. Along with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and extensive rules issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, it forms the backbone of United States financial regulation. It has been updated by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. Often referenced as the Investment Company Act, the 1940 Act or simply the '40 Act, it is the primary source of regulation for mutual funds and closed-end funds, an investment industry now in the many trillions of dollars. In addition, the '40 Act impacts the operations of hedge funds, private equity funds and even holding companies.
The Investment Advisers Act of 1940, codified at 15 U.S.C. § 80b-1 through 15 U.S.C. § 80b-21, is a United States federal law that was created to monitor and regulate the activities of investment advisers as defined by the law. It is the primary source of regulation of investment advisers and is administered by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Trust Indenture Act of 1939 (TIA), codified at 15 U.S.C. §§ 77aaa–77bbbb, supplements the Securities Act of 1933 in the case of the distribution of debt securities in the United States. Generally speaking, the TIA requires the appointment of a suitably independent and qualified trustee to act for the benefit of the holders of the securities, and specifies various substantive provisions for the trust indenture that must be entered into by the issuer and the trustee. The TIA is administered by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has made various regulations under the act.
In the United States under the Securities Act of 1933, any offer to sell securities must either be registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or meet certain qualifications to exempt them from such registration. Regulation D contains the rules providing exemptions from the registration requirements, allowing some companies to offer and sell their securities without having to register the securities with the SEC. A Regulation D offering is intended to make access to the capital markets possible for small companies that could not otherwise bear the costs of a normal SEC registration. Reg D may also refer to an investment strategy, mostly associated with hedge funds, based upon the same regulation. The regulation is found under Title 17 of the Code of Federal Regulations, part 230, Sections 501 through 508. The legal citation is 17 C.F.R. §230.501 et seq.
Securities regulation in the United States is the field of U.S. law that covers transactions and other dealings with securities. The term is usually understood to include both federal- and state-level regulation by purely governmental regulatory agencies, but sometimes may also encompass listing requirements of exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange and rules of self-regulatory organizations like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Conflict resources are natural resources extracted in a conflict zone and sold to perpetuate the fighting. There is both statistical and anecdotal evidence that belligerent accessibility to precious commodities can prolong conflicts. The most prominent contemporary example has been the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where various armies, rebel groups, and outside actors have profited from mining while contributing to violence and exploitation during wars in the region.
Regulation S-K is a prescribed regulation under the US Securities Act of 1933 that lays out reporting requirements for various SEC filings used by public companies. Companies are also often called issuers, filers or registrants.
The Investor Protections and Improvements to the Regulation of Securities is a United States Act of Congress, which forms Title IX, sections 901 to 991 of the much broader and larger Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Its main purpose is to revise the powers and structure of the Securities and Exchange Commission, credit rating organizations, and the relationships between customers and broker-dealers or investment advisers. This title calls for various studies and reports from the SEC and Government Accountability Office (GAO). This title contains nine subtitles.
The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) is a United States federal government organization, established by Title I of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010. The Office of Financial Research is intended to provide support to the council.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortgage-servicing operations, foreclosure relief services, debt collectors and other financial companies operating in the United States.
A Commodity pool operator (CPO) is an individual or organization that solicits or receives funds to use in the operation of a commodity pool, syndicate, investment trust, or other similar fund, specifically for trading in commodity interests. Such interests include commodity futures, swaps, options and/or leverage transactions. A commodity pool may refer to funds that trade in commodities and can include hedge funds. A CPO may make trading decisions for a fund or the fund can be managed by one or more independent commodity trading advisors. The definition of CPO may apply to investment advisors for hedge funds and private funds including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in certain cases. CPOs are generally regulated by the United States federal government through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and National Futures Association.
A Commodity trading advisor (CTA) is US financial regulatory term for an individual or organization who is retained by a fund or individual client to provide advice and services related to trading in futures contracts, commodity options and/or swaps. They are responsible for the trading within managed futures accounts. The definition of CTA may also apply to investment advisors for hedge funds and private funds including mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in certain cases. CTAs are generally regulated by the United States federal government through registration with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and membership of the National Futures Association (NFA).
Systemically important financial market utilities (SIFMUs) are entities whose failure or disruption could threaten the stability of the United States financial system. To date eight entities in the U.S. have been officially designated SIFMUs.
The SEC Regulatory Accountability Act is a bill that was introduced into the United States House of Representatives in the 113th United States Congress. The bill would amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to give new directions to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) governing its regulation creation and amendment process. The SEC would be required to assess the significance of the problem they are considering addressing, determine whether the estimated costs would outweigh the estimated benefits, and identify alternatives to their proposed regulation. The bill is intended to help protect the financial sector from excessive, burdensome regulations created by the SEC. The bill would do this by ordering the SEC to conduct a cost-benefit study before issuing any new rules to ensure that the expected benefits of the new rule would outweigh the expected costs of imposing it.
Executive Order 13772, titled "Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System", is an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on February 3, 2017. The eighth executive action by the president during his first 100 days in office, it establishes the "core principles" of regulation under the Trump Administration and tasks the United States Department of the Treasury to review the Financial Stability Oversight Council, originally established under the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and report to the President in 120 days on current regulations and their effectiveness in carrying out these core principles.
