Which U.S. law created the Securities and Exchange Commission after the 1929 Wall Street Crash?

The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 created the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the law on June 6, 1934. It established the SEC and gave it authority over securities exchanges, brokers, dealers, and reporting by public companies. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. became the commission’s first chairman.

The law followed the Securities Act of 1933, which focused primarily on the initial offering and registration of securities. The 1934 act addressed ongoing trading, disclosure, market manipulation, and enforcement in secondary markets.

The SEC was one part of a wider New Deal response to the crash and banking crisis. Its creation did not prevent every later market decline, but it established a permanent federal regulator and a framework for investor-protection rules.