Abstract
This chapter focuses on the regulation of and competition in the markets related to financial securities. Among the fields of economics, the subfield of finance focuses on opportunities and decisions that play out over time and against the backdrop of uncertainty about future events. A financial security is an asset that gives its owner the right to future payments from the security issuer. Shares of stock, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, and bonds issued by the U.S. government are common examples of financial securities.