SEC files charges against former PCAOB staff and former KPMG partners—collateral impact?
Yesterday, the SEC filed charges against six CPAs, including former staffers at the PCAOB and former partners of KPMG, arising out of “their participation in a scheme to misappropriate and use confidential information relating to the PCAOB’s planned inspections of KPMG.” All have now been separated from KPMG or the PCAOB, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the SDNY has filed criminal charges. Here is the press release, which advises that the “SEC stands ready to work with issuers to ensure that collateral effects, if any, to issuers and, in particular, their shareholders are minimized.”
Impact of government shutdown on SEC operations
The SEC has finally posted a notice about its operating status in the event of a government shutdown. If there is a shutdown “after January 19, the SEC will remain open for a limited number of days, fully staffed and focused on the agency’s mission.
Get used to it— “lap dog” may now be a favored adjective in shareholder proposals
From here on out, I guess you can count on seeing your directors described as “lap dogs” in some shareholder proposals or, more accurately, nascent or possible lap dogs. (That helps, doesn’t it?) That’s because, in three separate shareholder proposals submitted to The Boeing Company by three beneficial owners (all working through John Chevedden), the SEC refused to allow the company to exclude portions of the supporting statements that suggested that some of the company’s directors might be “lap dogs.”
When theories collide: what happens when the shareholder preeminence theory meets the stakeholder theory?
Laurence Fink, the Chair and CEO of BlackRock, has issued his annual letter to public companies, entitled A Sense of Purpose. As in prior years, Fink advocates enhanced shareholder engagement and a focus on long-term strategy development. (See this PubCo post and this PubCo post.) What’s new this year is that he is also advocating that companies recognize their responsibilities to stakeholders beyond just shareholders—to employees, customers and communities. Holy smokes, Milton Friedman, what happened to maximizing shareholder value as the only valid responsibility of corporations?
Does inclusion of executive compensation metrics related to corporate social responsibility lead to long-term value creation?
In this recent academic study, Social Responsibility Criteria in Executive Compensation: Effectiveness and Implications for Firm Outcomes, the authors examined the impact of the integration of elements of corporate social responsibility, such as environmental and social performance, into executive compensation performance criteria. In the decision-making process, executives tend to gravitate toward the achievement of short-term goals and to respond more readily to more prominent direct stakeholders, such as customers and shareholders. But CSR metrics typically have a long-term pay-off and involve less direct stakeholders, such as the environment and the local community. The question is: is the inclusion of CSR performance metrics in executive comp programs effective to motivate executives to achieve those longer-term CSR goals, engage with CSR stakeholders and enhance long-term value creation?
A Christmas gift from the SEC staff: guidance on disclosure of the accounting effect of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
Yesterday, the staffs of the Office of Chief Accountant and Corp Fin issued guidance regarding disclosure of the accounting impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, just signed into law on December 22. As discussed in this PubCo post, companies have been fretting about the timing of the new Act and whether they will be able to accurately determine the impact of the tax changes on their financial statements in time to file their annual and quarterly reports with the SEC. That is largely because, under U.S. accounting rules, companies must generally reflect the impact of these tax changes in the quarter they are signed into law, even if they go into effect at a future date. The staff has been talking with companies about their concerns and has responded with this guidance, which, Corp Fin Director Bill Hinman observes, “recognizes that investors demand and deserve high-quality information, while also recognizing that entities may face challenges in accounting for one of the most comprehensive changes to the U.S. federal tax code since 1986.” According to the related SEC Statement, the “staff guidance, which reflects the approach taken in prior situations where legislative changes could significantly affect financial reporting, provides a ‘measurement period’ for issuers to evaluate the impacts of the [Act] on the their financial statements. Importantly, the guidance also sets forth staff expectations for disclosure to investors during the measurement period.” Merry Christmas finance departments and auditors!
SEC nominees off “hold” and awaiting Senate confirmation
As has been widely reported, there are currently two nominees to fill the two empty slots at the SEC—from the Democratic side, Robert Jackson, a professor at Columbia Law School, and from the Republican side, Hester Peirce, a fellow at George Mason University. However, Senator Tammy Baldwin had put a “hold” on the nominees back in November, as reported in the WSJ, until they provided “their views on whether regulators should rein in activist investors, stock buybacks and executive pay.” Now that they have both responded to her questions, Baldwin has lifted her hold on the nominees, according to Law360, “clearing a hurdle for confirmation.” Their responses, although not exactly surprising, provide some insight into their views on these key issues.
Assessing impact of major tax law change, if enacted, on financial statements on a timely basis would present huge challenge
The potential passage of the new tax bill is giving some finance departments conniptions, according to Bloomberg BNA, and they’re hoping that the SEC will address the problem. The SEC? Yes. While companies are happy to see the tax breaks, some companies, especially large multinational companies, are anxious about whether they will be able to accurately determine the impact of the tax changes on their financial statements in time to file their annual and quarterly reports with the SEC. The obvious concern is that, if the SEC doesn’t extend the filing deadline, companies could risk making material misstatements.
What’s on the Agenda—the SEC’s Regulatory Flexibility Agenda, that is?
SEC Chair Jay Clayton has repeatedly made a point of his intent to take the Regulatory Flexibility Act Agenda ”seriously,” streamlining it to show what the SEC actually expected to take up in the subsequent period. (See this PubCo post and this PubCo post.) The agenda has just been released, and it certainly appears that Clayton has been true to his word: several items that had taken up long-term residency on numerous prior agendas seem to be absent from this one.
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