text: The SEC plays an important role through its responsibilities to regulate activities of public companies and their auditors and to conduct related enforcement actions , as well as to establish and sustain the new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ( PCAOB ) established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 until the PCAOB is certified by the SEC as ready to operate .
  
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  The SEC does not regulate the actions of companies in the public arena .