Commission Members Of SEC

The primary mission of SEC is to safeguard investors, maintaining fair and orderly market along with the facilities of capital information. As for the Commission members of SEC, the SEC comprises of five presidentially-appointed Commissioners. Each commissioner serves a five-year term that is staggered so that that one commissioner's term ends on June 5 of each year. Among the five commissioners, one of them is designated as the Chairman of SEC, the agency’s chief executive by the President. However, no more than three of the Commissioners may belong to the same political party, ensuring non-partisanship. Read on to know more about the commission members of Securities and Exchange Commission.

The President does not have the power to fire the SEC commission members. It was a provision made to guarantee the independence of Securities and Exchange Commission. However, this issue was arisen during the Presidential Election in 2008, in connection with the ensuring financial crisis. The first chairman of the SEC was Joseph P. Kennedy, appointed by the President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Presently, the SEC commissioners are chair Mary L. Schapiro, Kathleen L. Casey, Elisse B. Walter, Luis A. Aguilar and Troy A. Paredes. The SEC’s functional responsibilities are structured into 5 Divisions and nineteen Offices. The SEC headquarter is located in Washington, DC. However, they have 3,500 staffs approximately. Moreover, they also have eleven regional offices throughout the country.

It is the responsibilities of the agency and the SEC commission members to look after federal securities laws, issuing new rules and amends existing rules, supervise the inspection of securities firms, brokers, investment advisers, and ratings agencies. Their main functions also include supervising private regulatory organizations in the securities, accounting, and auditing fields. They also coordinate U.S. securities regulation with federal, state, and foreign authorities. Moreover, the Commission gathers regularly at meetings that are open to the public and the news media unless the discussion pertains to confidential subjects, such as whether to begin an enforcement investigation.