SEC Weighs Shift to Semiannual Earnings Reporting

• The European Union terminated its mandatory quarterly disclosure rule in 2013.
• The plan would not kick out the quarterly report completely. Rather than this, it would make quarterly disclosure optional. 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is planning to roll out a proposal that would permit public firms to report earnings twice a year rather than the long-standing quarterly reporting need. 

As per the report published by The Wall Street Journal, the proposal can roll out anytime in the upcoming month. Before publishing the rule, regulators have been having words with prominent stock exchanges regarding how their listing needs might need to change if firms are given the option to report results every six months rather than every quarter. 

If the proposal were officially issued, it would also interfere with the SEC’s rulemaking process, which comprises a public comment duration that normally lasts around 30 days before the commission votes on whether to adopt the change. 

However, there is not confirmation that the rule will eventually be passed and approved. The plan would not kick out the quarterly report completely. Rather than this, it would make quarterly disclosure optional, permitting firms to choose whether to carry on publishing financial updates every three months. 

No Official Confirmation 

Quarterly earnings reports have remained an integral part of U.S. capital markets since 1970, when regulators rolled out the Form 10-Q filing need to offer investors regular updates on firms’ performance. 

Supporters of the change claim that quarterly reporting supports excessive short-term pressure on corporate management and imposes prominent compliance costs for public firms. 

Advocates mention that suppressing the frequency of needed disclosure could help reverse the long-term fall in the number of publicly listed firms in the United States. Although critics have alerted that less frequent reporting could weaken transparency.

Along with that, it could also delay the release of significant financial information that investors depend on to access corporate performance and risk. The European Union terminated its mandatory quarterly disclosure rule in 2013. Talking about the UK, it curbed its requirement several years later. 

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