The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday asked all securities-related entities to step up their surveillance for possible terrorists. The SEC’s request broadens the search beyond the list of publicly identified terrorists that financial firms in Canada are being asked for information on.

The SEC is asking firms to cooperate voluntarily with law enforcement authorities in their ongoing investigations in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks.

It notes that over the last month, brokers, dealers, investment advisers, investment companies, transfer agents, exchanges and other self-regulatory organizations and industry groups have been asked to review their records and work with law enforcement officials to identify any transactions or relationships with certain individuals or entities that have been identified by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. Now the regulator is asking firms to step it up the search.

The SEC and other financial regulators have worked with law enforcement officials on a unified list of individuals and entities, that will be referred to as the Control List. The list will contain confidential information, and the SEC is asking that it only be circulated on a need to know basis. “Under no circumstances should the Control List or the information contained in it be disseminated outside your institution.”

Law enforcement officials will provide the Control List to the SEC. It will email it to financial institutions. Identical lists will also be disseminated by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to banking institutions and by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. “We need your immediate help in starting this system,” it says, noting that this request is separate from the one issued by the SEC on September 26, concerning compliance with President Bush’s September 24 executive order freezing U.S. assets of and blocking transactions with identified individuals and organizations.