America’s securities laws are generic. We have only a single body of securities law for all types of companies. The two centerpieces of American securities regulation, the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, regulate almost every industry imaginable, from software making to clothing retail to food service, banking, coal mining, insurance, for-profit higher education, hotels, book publishing, art dealing, and real estate investing. American securities regulation contains multitudes.
Except, that is, for one very special industry: the investment company industry. Unlike all other companies, mutual funds, closed-end funds, hedge funds and private equity funds have their own special securities regulatory regime in the form of the Investment Company Act of 1940. This act is administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the same agency that administers the other securities laws, but it imposes a different body of regulations in place of (and sometimes on top of) the generic securities regulations that apply to every other kind of company. No other large industry has a special securities regulatory scheme of this scope and magnitude. The investment company industry is one of a kind.