The Securities and Exchange Commission, also referred to as the SEC, was created back in 1934 by section 4 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. It was created to regulate the securities industry, protect investors from fraud, as well as to enforce federal securities laws. Some of the federal securities laws that are enforced by the SEC include: the Securities Act of 1933, the Trust Indenture Act of 1939, the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.