SECURITIES INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

Introduction

The Internet offers a storehouse of information from securities regulators, issuers, and markets. The activities of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and virtually all other significant legislative and regulatory bodies are accessible on the Internet. In addition, the SEC makes available all issuer filings, creating a vast database of company information. There are also numerous free sites that serve as information repositories on issuers, and individual companies typically have their own investor relations Web site that contains their securities filings.

What follows is a brief guide to finding different types of securities information on the Internet. The guide is arranged by category of information.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Laws, Rules and Regulatory Matters
• State Securities Law
• Self-Regulatory Organizations/Exchanges
• Legislative Sources
• Other Financial Regulatory Departments or Agencies
• Securities Industry Trade Associations
• Securities Litigation
• Issuer/Reporting Company Information
• Initial Public Offerings
• Securities Information Warehouses
• For More Information

Laws, Rules and Regulatory Matters

• Statutes and Regulations The pertinent federal securities statutes and regulations. Some forms are included.
• S.E.C. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – Regulatory matters

The federal agency charged with administration of the federal securities laws, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, offers a wealth of administrative materials relating to its rulemaking and enforcement functions. Copies of rule proposals, adopting releases, litigation releases, and SEC reports can all be found at this site. A useful daily summary of SEC's administrative business can be found in the SEC News Digest.

State Securities Law

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) is a voluntary organization of state and regional securities administrators.

Self-Regulatory Organizations/Exchanges

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) was created in 2007 from the merger of the NASD with some functions of the NYSE. FINRA has federal authority to enforce its rules and regulations on firms and individuals in the U.S. securities industry.

Many exchanges, both domestic and foreign, can be found on the Web. The principal domestic securities markets are:

• NYSE Euronext
• NASDAQ Nasdaq Stock Market
• AMEX American Stock Exchange
• CME Group Created in 2007 from the merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)

Legislative Sources

A. Statutes and regulations

• The Securities Lawyer's Deskbook, published by the University of Cincinnati College of Law, has the text of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as the forms and rules promulgated thereto. Some additional regulations can be found here also.
• The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School provides access to a searchable version of the U.S. CODE. The U.S. Government Printing Office also has a searchable version of the Code.

B. Current Legislative Activity

• Through THOMAS, from the Library of Congress, you can search pending legislation in Congress. This is a good way to see what is "coming down the pipe."
• The U.S. Senate Banking Committee is responsible for preliminary consideration of securities legislation and hearings on securities issues in the Senate.
• The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services concerns itself with matters including securities, exchanges, banks, banking, and federal monetary policy.

 

Other Financial Regulatory Departments or Agencies

• U.S. Department of Treasury
• Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
• OCC Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
• CFTC Commodity Futures Trading Commission
• GAO Government Accountability Office

Securities Industry Trade Associations

A number of trade associations in the securities industry maintain Web sites that provide commentary on developments affecting the industry.

• ICI Investment Company Institute
• SIFMA Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association

Securities Litigation

Securities Class Action Clearinghouse. Stanford Law School maintains this site, which contains useful data about securities class actions as well as selected legal documents filed in the case.

Issuer/Reporting Company Information

The Securities and Exchange Commission has a mandatory system of electronic filing for registration of public offerings and virtually all filings required of reporting companies. The system, named EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) is accessible on the Internet.

Private vendors offer access to the EDGAR database in slightly more user friendly forms. These include:

• Edgar-Online
• 10kWizard.com

Initial Public Offerings

The recent interest in initial public offerings of equity has spawned Web sites or sections of Web sites devoted to news about initial public offerings as well as related securities filings. These include:

• IPOhome.com
• IPO Central

Securities Information Warehouses

There are many sites that attempt to catalog securities information on the Internet. Most of these sites also have information and links to late breaking news and in-depth analysis.

• Suffolk Law Library has collected a number of useful links in different areas of the law. Included is Finance in its Legal Resources page. There is also financial news, and securities law and regulation .

For More Information

Of course, more information is being added daily to the amount of material on the Web. To find this information, either check the warehouses above or use the various search engines on the Internet. Some search engines, Google, Teoma, Yahoo, etc., not only allow you to search their databases but also attempt to catalog the Internet into categories. Therefore, you can either try to search for "stock exchanges" (for example) on the main page, or go through individual subject headings (such as Business and Economy; Markets and Investments; Stocks; Stocks Exchanges). In addition, a number of broker-dealers and mutual fund families maintain Web sites with investor education sections. These sites frequently serve as good primers for persons without any background.

If you have a site that you would like to see added to this list, or notice that a current link is no longer valid, please e-mail Rick Buckingham, Reference Librarian.

 

Last updated: January 19, 2008.