-- The US Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that it proposed rule amendments that would abandon the quarterly reporting schedule for public companies.
If adopted, the SEC proposals would give companies the option to switch to semiannual reporting from the current practice of filing financials on a quarterly basis, the regulator said.
In that case, companies would file one semiannual report and one annual report for each fiscal year. Currently, all companies are required to file three quarterly reports and one annual report each year.
"Public companies have an obligation under the federal securities laws to provide information that is material to investors," SEC Chairman Paul Atkins in a statement. "Yet, the rigidity of the SEC's rules has prevented companies and their investors from determining for themselves the interim reporting frequency that best serves their business needs and investors."
US President Donald Trump in September floated the idea of replacing the quarterly reporting schedule with semiannual reporting.
"This will save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies," Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.
The flexibility in determining a company's reporting cadence "might reduce some of the burdens of being a public company and potentially influence a company's decision to become or remain public," Atkins said.
The SEC is seeking public comment on potentially eliminating the quarterly reporting requirement.
"Today's proposal is just the first step of the larger, comprehensive effort to review and reshape the current SEC rules governing public companies with respect to their ongoing reporting obligations and their ability to raise capital in the public markets," Atkins said.