Trump urges SEC to approve shift from quarterly to semi-annual company reporting
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The news: US President Donald Trump proposed that US companies stop reporting financial results every quarter and instead switch to publishing figures twice a year.
In a post on Truth Social, he said the change, subject to Securities and Exchange Commission approval, would “save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies.”
The context: Publicly traded companies have been required to report quarterly since 1970, while many markets in Europe, Australia, Singapore and the UK require only semi-annual financial disclosures.
Trump had made a similar proposal during his first term, when the SEC studied the idea but did not change the rules.
The commission, now led by Trump pick Paul Atkins and with a Republican majority, has not commented on his latest call.
What they said: Supporters say quarterly reporting is costly, time-consuming and encourages executives to focus on short-term targets instead of long-term strategy. Critics, including investors and governance experts, argue that cutting the number of reports would deprive investors, regulators and the public of timely financial information.
“Advocates for semi-annual reporting argue that it will keep corporate managers focused on the long term,” Ann Lipton, a law professor at the University of Colorado told the Financial Times. “The downside is, it would make it harder for investors to gain insight into corporate operations.”
The sources: Donald Trump, The Financial Times, The Associated Press, The New York Times
