---
category: U.S. Government
location: Washington, D.C.
start: 1934
summary: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a U.S. government agency
  responsible for regulating the securities markets and protecting investors.[^1]
tags:
- Organization
- Government
- USA
updated: 2026-10-03
---

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a U.S. government agency responsible for regulating the securities markets and protecting investors.[^1]

### Involvement in BCCI Scandal

The SEC filed suit against [BCCI](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/), [Agha Hasan Abedi](/people/agha-hasan-abedi/), [Bert Lance](/people/bert-lance/), and others in connection with the purchase of [Financial General Bankshares](/organizations/financial-general-bankshares/) stock.[^1] The nominees used by BCCI to secretly acquire Financial General Bankshares were summarily sued by the SEC for failing to declare that they were acting as a group.[^2]

### EDGAR contract

The Baltimore Sun of January 5, 1989 reported that on Tuesday, January 3, 1989, after a delay of more than two years, the SEC awarded a 52 million dollar contract to build its electronic data gathering, analysis and retrieval system, EDGAR, to a consortium led by [BDM Corp.](/organizations/bdm-corporation/) of McLean, Virginia, which the paper called "a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Co." The other members were Mead Data Central, Sorg, Inc. and Bechtel Information Systems. The eight-year contract provided for BDM to design and install a computer to accept and disseminate all SEC filings by more than 11,000 publicly traded companies and 2,700 investment firms, and the SEC said EDGAR should provide more than 170 million dollars in savings.[^3]

[^1]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 12.
[^2]: Beaty, Jonathan and Gwynne, S. C. *The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of BCCI*. New York: Random House, 1993, p. 183.
[^3]: "SEC awards data pact," Business Briefly, Baltimore Sun (Baltimore), January 5, 1989, p. 1D, https://www.newspapers.com/image/378257935/