As some of us contemplate which disclosure rules we’d like to do away with, others are thinking about new rules that would require more disclosure. One possible area of rulemaking relates to disclosure of political contributions. Regardless of one’s views of the merits of such disclosure, significant and vocal groups of shareholders advocate it, and for that reason alone it’s not something that companies (or regulators) can blithely ignore.
What I don’t understand is why those who are pressing for such disclosure seem to believe not only that it is imperative, but also that it must be included in Exchange Act reports, such as 10-Ks or 10-Qs. To the extent (albeit limited) that any securities lawyers are OK with political contributions disclosure in the first place, the insistence upon including it in a 10-K or 10-Q is a major turn-off, because doing so would lengthen those already voluminous reports and, more importantly, would subject a company to Exchange Act liability.
I’ve spoken to one of the principal advocates of such disclosure – who, by the by, is a smart and decent man – about this insistence. I asked why, for example, he’d oppose posting the information on a company’s website, or including it in a supplemental report (both of which are the current norms for such disclosure) outside the framework of the Exchange Act. He countered by saying, first, that only an SEC rule would require all public companies to provide the information and that only an SEC rule would set universal disclosure standards. I disagree; it seems to me that both of those goals could be achieved through industry standard-setting or exchange listing standards. But even if he’s right and the SEC were to impose requirements, that doesn’t mean that the disclosure should have to be in an Exchange Act report. No offense to my smart and decent friend, but I’m still waiting for an answer.
As we approach disclosure “reform” with hopes that the web will offer us some respite from ever-longer SEC filings through more “layered” disclosure, much of it posted on the web, and not all of which needs to be printed or “filed” or even “furnished,” it seems anomalous if not downright ill-advised to insist upon this particular push to make our filings look more and more like doorstops. The good news is that thus far the SEC has shown little or no interest in rulemaking in this area, but time will tell.
Your thoughts?