The White House has received a draft Securities and Exchange Commission proposal on altering the cadence of corporate disclosures, initiating a mandatory review by the Office of Management and Budget, according to a government posting.
The submission, documented on a federal website, reached the White House’s OMB on Friday. That review must be completed before the SEC can formally publish the proposed rule and invite public comment. If the agency moves forward, commissioners would hold an initial vote to release the plan for feedback and later vote again to adopt a final rule - a multi-step process that could extend over several months.
Specifics of the draft remain sparse in the posting. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has suggested in recent remarks that any change in filing frequency could be tiered by company size, indicating that large and smaller issuers might face different disclosure schedules.
The commission’s work on this potential overhaul was launched in response to a directive from President Donald Trump last year asking federal regulators to consider shifting corporate reporting from quarterly cycles to semiannual ones. Chairman Atkins has said he intends to accelerate the agency’s work on the initiative, asserting the adjustment could reduce compliance burdens and save companies time and money. Proponents of the current quarterly system counter that more frequent reports provide important transparency that helps investors make better-informed decisions.
Under an executive order signed last year, the SEC is required to submit draft regulations to the White House for review prior to publication. Historical averages for SEC rulemaking indicate that the period from initial proposal to final rule has typically been about 18 months, underscoring that the full rulemaking timetable may be considerably longer than the OMB review alone.
At present, the public record available via the government posting offers only limited detail on the draft proposal and on the timeline the SEC will follow after the OMB completes its review. Further steps - including publication for comment and subsequent commission votes - will determine whether and how the proposed change in reporting frequency advances.