Month: September 2018
The GICS is changing—will it affect your company?
Here’s some news (thanks to compensationstandards.com and Compensia): the structure of the GICS code is changing. “Who cares?” you say. Yep, that’s what I said when I first heard about these changes. (Well, that’s what I said once I figured out that the “Global Industry Classification Standard” (GICS) code is not the same thing as the “Standard Industrial Classification” (SIC) code, a four-digit classification system developed in the 1930s that the SEC uses to classify companies; the SEC requires each company to identify its primary SIC code on the facing page of registration statements. No, SIC codes are not changing.) However, it turns out that the GICS code, a 10-digit classification system developed by MSCI and S&P for use by the global financial community, is employed not only for creating financial indices, but is also critical to the development by proxy advisor ISS of its compensation peer groups and other compensation-related analyses. So, GICS codes matter: for those companies affected, the structural changes could have a significant impact on assessments by ISS of their executive compensation programs. The changes will be effective on September 28, 2018.
Would a shift to semiannual reporting really affect short-termism?
You remember, of course, that last month, the president, on his way out of town for the weekend, tossed out to reporters the idea of eliminating quarterly reporting. (See this PubCo post.) The president said that, in his discussions with leaders of the business community regarding ways to improve the business environment, Indra Nooyi, the outgoing CEO of Pepsico, had suggested that one way to help business would be to trim the periodic reporting requirements from quarterly to semiannually. The argument is that the change would not only save time and money, but would also help to deter “short-termism,” as companies would not need to focus on meeting analysts’ expectations on a quarterly basis at the expense of longer term thinking. “We are not thinking far enough out,” he added. (For more on saving time and money through semiannual reporting, see this PubCo post.) But how much impact would a shift to semiannual reporting really have on short-termism?
Would semiannual reporting really have a major effect on costs?
You remember, of course, that last month, the president, on his way out of town for the weekend, tossed out to reporters the idea of eliminating quarterly reporting. (See this PubCo post.) The argument is that the change would not only help to deter “short-termism,” it would also save all public companies substantial time and money. But how meritorious is that idea? According to this article in the WSJ, if a change from quarterly reporting to semiannual reporting were actually implemented, smaller companies could experience significant cost savings, but large companies—not so much.
Republican nominee to SEC confirmed
The Senate has confirmed the appointment of Elad Roisman as SEC Commissioner, replacing Republican Commissioner Michael Piwowar. He hails from that pipeline to the SEC, the Senate Banking Committee, where, according to Investment News, he served as Chief Counsel. Prior to that position, he served as counsel to SEC Republican Commissioner Daniel Gallagher.
It’s back to SAB 99 for FASB definition of materiality
In 2015, FASB sent a number of stakeholders into a tizzy when it issued two exposure drafts, part of its disclosure framework project, intended to “clarify the concept of materiality.” After hearing from any number of preparers, practitioners and other commenters, FASB has now reversed course. According to FASB, the “main amendment” in Amendments to Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 8, issued at the end of August, “reinstates the definition of materiality that was in FASB Concepts Statement No. 2, Qualitative Characteristics of Accounting Information, which was superseded in 2010.” In other words, it’s back to SAB 99.
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