the electronic data and record system of the securities and exchange commission is known as
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission To achieve its mandate, the SEC enforces the statutory requirement that public companies and other regulated companies submit quarterly and annual reports, as well as other periodic reports. In addition to annual financial reports, company executives must provide a narrative account, called the "management discussion and analysis" (MD&A), that outlines the previous year of operations and explains how the company fared in that time period. MD&A will usually also touch on the upcoming year, outlining future goals and approaches to new projects. In an attempt to level the playing field for all investors, the SEC maintains an online database called EDGAR (the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system) online from which investors can access this and other information filed with the agency.
Financial Accounting Standards Board The FASB's mission is to “establish and improve financial accounting and reporting standards to provide useful information to investors and other users of financial reports and educate stakeholders on how to most effectively understand and implement those standards.”[2][3] The FASB carries out its mission through improving the usefulness of financial reporting, focusing on the faithful representation and relevance of financial information, including the enhancing characteristics of useful information, comparability, timeliness, understandability, and verifiability. The FASB also accomplishes their mission through educating and guiding auditors, preparers, and other users of financial statements, ensuring current standards reflect developments in methods of doing business and economic environment changes, and by acknowledging areas of insufficiency in financial reporting that could be improved through the standard setting process.[4][5]