Sky Blog
Disclosure and reporting regulation is a central and recurring policy issue that has received significant attention in academic research on accounting, finance, and economics. Further fueling demand for this research are increasingly frequent requests that policy makers and regulators conduct …
On December 22, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Chief Accountant and Division of Corporation Finance (“Staff”) issued important guidance that provides significant relief and helpful answers on some of the accounting and disclosure issues raised by …
Investors, hedge funds, regulators, banks, and attorneys want to know: What really happens when a company misses a regulatory deadline? In a new paper, we offer theory and quantitative analysis of the consequences of missing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission …
Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued guidance regarding “robo-advisers,” automated investment advice tools accessed via web-based or mobile platforms with minimal human interaction.1 The guidance is an important reminder to the industry that robo-advisers are …
Investor relations (IR) connects the preparers of financial information with its users, aiming to facilitate efficient and effective interaction between the firm and the investment community. Historically, the IR function has been viewed as a communications role, and the investor …
Research has begun to analyze the tone and narrative structure of earnings announcements after decades of focusing on market reactions to the earnings news itself. One conclusion from this literature is that language matters – the tone (i.e., the excess …
On October 11, 2017, the SEC proposed a collection of amendments to its rules and forms intended to modernize and simplify some of the disclosure requirements applicable to U.S. public companies.[1] The proposals would implement a statutory directive under …
On Friday, October 6, the Treasury Department issued a report to the President on streamlining and reforming U.S. capital market regulation. The report covers recommendations on nine topics across the U.S. financial regulatory system. One of the topics – Access …
Every securities lawyer knows that offers and sales of securities must either be registered under the Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act) or made pursuant to an applicable exemption. This rule is so fundamental that we often neglect to think …
More than 8,000 domestic equity securities were publicly traded in the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) market in 2010. Yet, research studying this market is limited. On the one hand, the OTC market attracts stocks of firms that tend to be small …
Benefit corporations are a new legal form of business association created to support social enterprises. Over half of U.S. states have adopted a benefit corporation statute, and over 2,000 companies have chosen the form. So far, almost all of these …
In my most recent article, ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Corporate Crime, I argue that modern large-scale corporate crime is driven and shaped by ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ incentives.[1] ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ enforcement based on disclosure polices …
To be a public company in the United States is to be subject to an array of federally-imposed disclosure requirements. In my forthcoming article, Reviving Reliance, I describe how the private causes of action available to enforce these requirements …
On March 27, 2017, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in a potentially significant securities case addressing the scope of claims under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and SEC Rule 10b-5, based solely on alleged omissions of …
The Supreme Court has long held that “[s]ilence, absent a duty to disclose, is not misleading under Rule 10b-5.”[1] And such a duty to disclose only arises where necessary to make a statement already made not misleading, thus allowing …
In 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Concept Release on Regulation S-K as part of its comprehensive review of the effectiveness of federal disclosure rules. The release included for the first time a request for comment on …
Good morning, and welcome to the first Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) meeting of 2017.
I see several familiar faces here today. On behalf of all of us here at the Commission, I would like to extend our thanks to the
On March 1, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued a notice and request for comment, together with proposed and final rules intended to update certain disclosure requirements:
Mandatory disclosure sits at the foundation of modern securities regulation. Public companies must produce and share a wide variety of information about their condition and prospects, and they must do so on their own dime.
There can be little doubt …
Recent advances in financial technology (FinTech) have dramatically transformed the financial landscape with respect to the way we access, invest, and transfer financial capital. In our recent article, we explore a promising avenue for the use of natural-language processing in …