Regulators generally seek to promote fair and orderly markets in which traders can trade at prices that accurately reflect fundamental values without incurring excessive transaction costs. Governmental agencies and self-regulating organizations of practitioners provide regulatory services that attempt to make markets safer and more efficient.

The objectives of market regulation are to:

• control fraud. Customers may not know how to protect themselves since the financial markets are quite complex.
• control agency problems. Financial agents often have different goals from their customers. How to effectively measure the services they provide?
• promote fairness. For example, insider trading is prohibited in most markets as it offends basic notions of fairness.
• set mutually beneficial standards. Common financial standards allow investors to compare companies easily.
• prevent undercapitalized financial firms from exploiting their investors by making excessive risky investments.Regulators generally require that financial firms to maintain minimum levels of capital to reduce the probability that these firms will fail and hurt their customers.
• ensure that long-term liabilities are funded. Insurance companies and pension funds need to maintain adequate reserves to ensure they can pay their liabilities when due.