Paul Atkins, chair of the US markets watchdog, said on Monday the regulator is fast-tracking President Donald Trump’s push to scrap quarterly earnings reports, raising transparency concerns around the potentially major shift for US companies.
Trump’s desired change to the reporting standard would require listed companies to publish results semi-annually instead of the current SEC mandate for the releaseof financial statements every 90 days.
The agency could release a proposal by the end of this year or in early 2026, Atkins said. In 2018, the SEC had solicited public comment on possible changes but ultimately left the current regime in place.
“The president’s call was timely, and so we are, you know, working to fast track it,” Atkins said, speaking to reporters at the US Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters on the sidelines of a joint roundtable with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on policy harmonization.
“I’m hoping this sometime end of the year, early next year, to be able to have a proposal out and then be able to collect comment from people,” he added.
Trump has argued that the move, first proposed by him in 2018, would cut costs and discourage shortsightedness among publicly traded companies. The US SEC at the time had said it was making his proposal a priority.
This time, the agency appears fully on board, giving the proposal a better chance of succeeding as the White House takes greater control of the commission’s agenda.
Atkins did not lay out a timeline for the change.
Some investors have cautioned that delaying financial disclosures could reduce transparency and increase market volatility, making US stocks less attractive, though several have recently supported the idea.
Transparency advocates also warn that it could give companies more opportunity to hide or postpone bad news. Meanwhile, investors argue that one reason US stocks trade at a premium, compared with equities elsewhere, is their stricter financial reporting requirements.
US-listed companies did not always report financial results quarterly. The shift from semiannual to quarterly reporting was mandated by the US regulator in 1970.
Atkins first outlined the move in an editorial in the Financial Times earlier on Monday. — Reuters
