Sec | featured news

The SEC and the major trading exchanges agreed that a market-wide "circuit-breaker" system should be established to handle the type of market volatility demonstrated in Thursday's unsettling market plunge.

U.S. securities regulators are considering new curbs to slow stock trades when markets are plunging following Thursday's dramatic sell-off, a person familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

President Barack Obama said Friday that regulatory authorities were probing one of the wildest trading days in Wall Street history that left investors, government officials and traders scratching around for a cause.

Congress must act to close gaps in the regulatory system that helped cause the financial crisis, a former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said....

Inquiries of 33 employees find one who was blocked more than 16,000 times in a month from visiting certain sites. He eventually found a way around the agency’s filter.

President Obama said on Wednesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission never discussed civil fraud charges against Goldman Sachs with the White House before they were publicly announced.

In a civil suit filed Friday, the S.E.C. accused the investment bank of securities fraud over a deal in which Goldman profited from bets against products it sold to customers.

The SEC voted 3-2 to approve a long-anticipated short-selling rule to place curbs on the practice for individual securities experiencing declines of 10% or more in a single day.

The attorney general accused the bank and two executives of securities fraud. Meanwhile, the bank settled an S.E.C. claim for $150 million.

Newly released documents in the Bernard Madoff case paint a detailed picture of a feckless Securities and Exchange Commission, and an epic scam artist who was constantly amazed he did not get caught.