The NYSE and the SEC. The Early Years

The Securities and Exchange Commission was established by the federal government in 1934 to interpret and enforce securities laws for the protection of investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation. The Crash The 1934 Report of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee following its hearings on Stock Exchange Practices began with the commissions and interest incomes of the members of 29 securities exchanges amounting to $2.4 billion, 92 percent at the New York Stock Exchange. [...]the Securities Act of 1933 was adopted during FDR's first hundred days even though the reporting required by the Act largely duplicated existing state, corporate, and exchange requirements. There were nearly three dozen securities exchanges in the country in 1934, but the Securities Exchange Act of that year was aimed principally at the New York Stock Exchange, known simply as "the Exchange" It had been organized in 1792, under a buttonwood tree outside 68 Wall Street, where 24 brokers agreed to deal with each other on specified terms.