Posts Tagged ‘SEC policy’
SEC’s Push for Better Cyber Governance
Today I want to revisit the SEC’s proposed new rules requiring public companies to disclose more about their cybersecurity risks. Those plans would obligate companies to discuss how the board and senior management address cybersecurity risk at a strategic, enterprise level. What’s that all about? In a previous post about the SEC proposals, I considered…
Read MoreSEC Proposes Climate Risk Disclosure Rule
The Securities and Exchange Commission today unveiled its long-awaited proposal for disclosure of risks related to climate change, including disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions stemming from a company’s supply chain as well as audit and attestation requirements for larger companies’ disclosures. The SEC adopted the proposed rule on a 3-1 vote, with lone Republican commissioner…
Read MoreAn SEC Statement on Restatements
The top accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission wants corporate executives and audit committees to do better at evaluating when financial restatements are necessary, saying that too many tilt their analysis toward the conclusion that, nope, that error we had last quarter doesn’t need to be restated after all. Paul Munter, the SEC’s acting…
Read MoreSEC Proposes Cyber Disclosure Rules
The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new rules that would require all public companies to disclose much more about how they manage cybersecurity risks and to disclose “material cybersecurity incidents” to investors promptly. The commission voted to propose the new rules on Wednesday morning — and to be clear, these are proposed new rules,…
Read MoreHolding Lawyers More Accountable
Corporate compliance and governance professionals often like to talk about the important role “gatekeepers” play in keeping an organization on the ethical path. Now an SEC commissioner is calling for new standards and accountability for some of the most important gatekeepers of all: corporate lawyers. Commissioner Allison Herren Lee gave the speech on Friday, and…
Read MoreSEC Comment Letters on Climate
At long last, the Securities and Exchange Commission is starting to provide a glimpse of the questions that SEC staffers are asking companies about the risks of climate change — and so far, the companies receiving such questions are doing their best to give the usual imprecise answers. That glimpse came in the form of…
Read MoreGensler Gives SPACs the Side Eye
SEC chairman Gary Gensler took special purpose acquisition companies to task again this week, devoting an entire speech to the governance and disclosure risks that SPACs pose to investors and arguing that SPACs must be beholden to the same investor protection rules that govern traditional IPOs. Gensler spoke Thursday morning at the 2021 conference of…
Read MoreSEC Springs Warning on Option Grants
The Securities and Exchange Commission is warning companies to do better at estimating and reporting the value of “spring-loaded” stock option grants they give to executives, possibly as a prelude to future enforcement actions against companies that continue to ignore the tricky accounting challenges involved here. Spring-loaded stock option grants are equity awards that companies…
Read MoreMore SEC Talk on Cyber, Internal Control
Before this particular bit of news sails downstream, internal control professionals might want to note that an SEC commissioner spoke this week about the importance of internal controls for cybersecurity. She raised a few points worth considering. The remarks came from Caroline Crenshaw, a Democratic appointee to the Securities and Exchange Commission who, in my…
Read MoreNotes on Disclosing Cybersecurity Lapses
Today let’s return to the issue of disclosing cybersecurity issues to investors, because, frankly, so many companies still struggle with exactly what to say in securities filings. That issue came up at the Securities Enforcement Forum last week and we have some excellent insights to share with the class. First let’s note that the Securities…
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