Securities and Exchange Commission: CNBC Explains Senior Editor,
CNBC The United States Securities and Exchange Commission—or
SEC—is the watchdog of Wall Street. So how does it work and what
power does it really have? CNBC explains. What is the purpose of
the SEC? The mission of the SEC, as it says on its website is,
"to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient
markets, and facilitate capital formation." In other words, the
SEC is out to catch those in the financial industry who are
breaking SEC rules and by doing so, keep the stock markets
honest and maintain investor confidence. We'll see how it
actually does this in a bit. As it's set up, the SEC is a
federal agency and receives its funding from Congress. The SEC
employs approximately 3,500 people from Washington, DC—where
it's headquartered—and in its 11 regional offices, which include
the cities of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Atlanta
and Miami. How does the SEC work? The authority given by
Congress to the SEC allows it to brin