The mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation. Discuss in brief.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strives to promote a market environment that is worthy of the public's trust. The laws and rules that govern the securities industry in the United States derive from a simple and straightforward concept: all investors, whether large institutions or private individuals, should have access to certain basic facts about an investment prior to buying it, and so long as they hold it. To achieve this, the SEC requires public companies to disclose meaningful financial and other information to the public. The SEC oversees the key participants in the securities world, including securities exchanges, securities brokers. The SEC is concerned primarily with promoting the disclosure of important market-related information, maintaining fair dealing, and protecting against fraud. Though it is the primary overseer and regulator of the U.S. securities markets, the SEC works closely with many other institutions, including Congress, other federal departments and agencies, the self-regulatory organizations (e.g., the stock exchanges), state securities regulators, and various private sector organizations. In addition, the Chairman of the SEC represents the agency as a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC).