(Reuters) – Paul Atkins, chair of the U.S. markets regulator, urged a move toward minimal oversight and backed President Donald Trump’s proposal to scrap quarterly earnings reports in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times on Monday.
“The government should provide the minimum effective dose of regulation needed to protect investors while allowing businesses to flourish,” Atkins wrote for the newspaper, adding that changes should not be driven by political trends.
Earlier this month, Trump said, opens new tab on his social media site Truth Social that the change to the reporting standard would require companies to report results semi-annually.
He has argued that the move, first proposed by him in 2018, would cut costs and discourage shortsightedness among publicly traded companies. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at the time had said it was making Trump’s proposal a priority.
At present, the SEC requires listed companies to release financial statements every 90 days. The agency in 2018 solicited public comment on possible changes but ultimately left the current regime in place.
This time, the SEC 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, which would be a major shift for companies in the U.S.
Some investors have cautioned that delaying financial disclosures could reduce transparency and increase market volatility, making U.S. 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 U.S. stocks trade at a premium, compared with equities elsewhere, is their stricter financial reporting requirements.
U.S.-listed companies did not always report financial results quarterly. The shift from semiannual to quarterly reporting was mandated by the U.S. regulator in 1970.
