The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) has told the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that its proposed reforms to ease disclosure and audit requirements for public companies go "too far" and would shift the regulatory balance away from investors.
In a comment sent to the SEC, ICGN CEO Jen Sisson argued that investor protection and capital formation are "mutually reinforcing," and warned that cutting disclosure requirements could ultimately raise companies' cost of capital and weaken confidence in public markets.
ICGN's recommendations:
- Retain Section 404(b) auditor attestation of companies’ internal controls
- Do not proceed with proposal to raise the Large Accelerated Filer threshold from $700m to $2bn
- Preserve executive pay transparency and shareholder voting rights in this area
- Ensure simplification efforts do not remove useful information, and that reliefs for smaller companies remain proportionate
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