[2] OSEC was founded in October 2011 as a working group of Occupy Wall Street,[1] the protest movement which started in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan on September 17, 2011.

[9] On February 26, 2013, OSEC filed a suit in the Eastern District Court of New York naming the Federal Reserve, the SEC, CFTC, OCC, FDIC, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury calling for implementation of the "Volcker Rule" (Section 619 of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010).

In June 2012, Occupy the SEC submitted a 7-page letter to the Senate Banking Committee prior to JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon's testimony.

[12] On February 15, 2013, OSEC submitted a formal comment letter on money market fund reform to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC).

[15] In September 2014, OSEC submitted an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court in the case of Omnicare v. Laborers Pension Fund supporting the rights to sue securities issuers and their agents for material misrepresentation.

[20] [21] [22] According to The Economist, Occupy the SEC's "contributions to the debate on regulatory reform (including a tome on the Volcker Rule) have been well-received even by some leading regulators".