The Securities Commission was an independent Crown entity of the government of New Zealand and the main regulator of investments.

This included authorising the New Zealand Stock Exchange with which it ran a co-regulatory model.

[2] The commission was first established under the Securities Act 1978 which determines its powers and functions.

The commissions role was modified and extended by a number of additional pieces of legislation.

The agency was chaired by Jane Diplock from 2001 until it was disbanded in 2011 and faced criticism for its handling of the collapse of a large number of finance companies.