By Robert Pear April 4, 2012 1:38 pm April 4, 2012 1:38 pm

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times President Obama signed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act in Washington on Tuesday.

President Obama on Wednesday signed an ethics bill that bans insider trading by members of Congress and requires thousands of federal employees to disclose information about their personal finances.

The signing came 10 weeks after Mr. Obama called for such legislation in his State of the Union address .

In signing the bill, Mr. Obama said he hoped it would reduce “the corrosive influence of money in politics’’ and help cure “the deficit of trust between this city and the rest of the country.’’

As a result of the legislation, Mr. Obama said, “if members of Congress use nonpublic information to gain an unfair advantage in the market, they are breaking the law.’’

The bill had broad bipartisan support, illustrated by the presence of Senator Scott P. Brown. Republican of Massachusetts, on stage with Mr. Obama when he signed the bill.

Mr. Obama praised Representative Louise M. Slaughter. Democrat of New York, who introduced the first version of the legislation in 2006 and had been fighting for it since then. The president said Ms. Slaughter was not at the signing ceremony because she broke her leg this week.

The bill the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or Stock Act was approved in the House in February by a vote of 417 to 2. The Senate agreed to it by unanimous consent after voting

96 to 3 to end debate on the measure in late March.

“We have made clear today that nobody is above the law and that members of Congress must play by the exact same set of rules as every other American, Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand. Democrat of New York and an architect of the legislation, said.

On Thursday, Mr. Obama plans to sign another bipartisan bill, which would make it easier for small companies to raise money from investors. Members of both parties said the measure would help create jobs and strengthen the economy.

Senator Brown said the two bills showed “what a bipartisan approach can accomplish, even in a Congress infamous for its divisions and gridlock.”

The new law prohibits members of Congress from trading stocks and other securities on the basis of confidential information they receive as lawmakers. It makes clear that the insider trading ban in

federal law applies to members of Congress and their aides and to officials in the executive and judicial branches of the federal government.

In addition, the law requires members of Congress to disclose the purchase or sale of stocks, bonds, commodities futures and other securities within 45 days of transactions, rather than once a year as they now do. The information will be posted on the Internet.

Thousands of federal agency officials, including many at the White House, will be subject to similar reporting requirements. The law also requires members of Congress and executive branch

officials to disclose the terms of mortgages on their homes and prohibits them from receiving special access to initial public stock offerings.

An earlier Senate version of the legislation would have required “political intelligence’’ firms to register as lobbyists do. The new law calls instead for a one-year study of such firms, which collect information on Capitol Hill and sell it to hedge funds, mutual funds and other investors.

Mr. Obama urged Congress on Wednesday to act on two other proposals, which he described this way in his State of the Union address: “Let’s limit any elected official from owning stocks in

industries they impact. Let’s make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can’t lobby Congress, and vice versa.’’