Sec Competitors

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, is dedicated to investor protection and market integrity. We regulate one critical part of the securities industry—brokerage firms doing business with the public in the United States. We carry out our mission by overseeing virtually every aspect of the brokerage industry. Every day, we work to: • write and enforce rules governing 3,900 firms and 635,000 brokers; • examine firms for compliance with those rules; • foster market transparency; and • inform the investing public. With 3,600 employees working in communities all across the nation, we are the first line of defense for investors.

We enable a fair and thriving financial services market for the good of consumers and the economy. We do this by: - Regulating the conduct of approximately 50,000 businesses - Prudentially supervising 48,000 firms Our Head Office is based in London, and we have offices in Edinburgh and Leeds. Firms and individuals must be authorised or registered by us to carry out certain activities.Before we grant authorisation, firms must demonstrate that they meet a range of requirements. We then supervise these firms to make sure they continue to meet our standards and rules after they’re authorised. If firms and individuals fail to meet these standards, we have a range of enforcement powers we can use.

The PCAOB is a nonprofit corporation established by Congress to oversee the audits of public companies in order to protect investors and further the public interest in the preparation of informative, accurate, and independent audit reports. The PCAOB also oversees the audits of brokers and dealers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including compliance reports filed pursuant to federal securities laws. The PCAOB has four primary duties: - Register public accounting firms that prepare audit reports for issuers, and SEC-registered brokers and dealers. - Establish or adopt auditing and related attestation, quality control, ethics, and independence standards. - Inspect registered public accounting firms' audits and quality control systems. - Investigate and discipline registered public accounting firms and their associated persons for violations of specified laws, rules, or professional standards. In support of our mission, we also conduct economic research and risk analysis, engage with our stakeholders and other domestic and international regulators, and manage a talented workforce and the technology and resources we need to perform our duties. The SEC has oversight authority over the PCAOB, including the approval of the Board's rules, standards, and budget.