Tag: SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee
Commissioner Uyeda warns: the SEC “has gone astray”
In remarks at PLI’s SEC Speaks, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda expressed his concern that the SEC “has gone astray”: instead of focusing on “its narrow mission,” Uyeda fears, the SEC is acceding to the pressure of political activists who “seek to transform the agency’s authority to achieve policy objectives that are outside of its statutory mandate.” To illustrate, Uyeda highlights two examples: the climate disclosure rules, just adopted by the SEC, and the conflict minerals rules, which were adopted by the SEC over a decade ago and are here presented as a cautionary tale. While the conflict minerals rules were actually mandated by Congress, the climate disclosure rules are something different: the SEC has “acted on its own volition,” Uyeda contends, in adopting “a climate disclosure rule that seeks to exert societal pressure on companies to change their behavior. It is the Commission that determined to delve into matters beyond its jurisdiction and expertise.” To Uyeda, “this action deviates from the Commission’s mission and contravenes established law.”
Lee to leave SEC
SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee has announced her intention not to seek another term on the Commission when her current term ends in June. Here is Chair Gary Gensler’s statement on her departure.
SEC Commissioner Lee advocates new gatekeeper regulations for attorneys
In remarks at PLI’s Corporate Governance webcast last week, SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee advocated that, after 20 years, it’s time for the SEC to fulfill the mandate of SOX 307 by adopting rules to set minimum standards of professional conduct for attorneys appearing and practicing before the SEC in the representation of issuers. But didn’t the SEC adopt up-the-ladder attorney reporting provisions under SOX 307 many years ago? Yes, but, she contended, the SEC “did not adopt a broader set of rules as Congress directed, and quite significantly, even this single standard has not been enforced in the nearly 20 years since it was adopted.” Her suggestions for standards are sure to trigger some controversy. Will the SEC up the ante on regulations for attorneys as gatekeepers?
The ongoing debate at the SEC: just how tough should the climate disclosure rule be?
Who doesn’t love the latest gossip—I mean reporting—about internal squabbles—I mean debate—at the SEC? This news from Bloomberg sheds some fascinating light on reasons for the ongoing delay in the release of the SEC’s climate disclosure proposal: internal conflicts about the proposal. But, surprisingly, the conflicts are not between the Dems and the one Republican remaining on the SEC; rather, they’re reportedly between SEC Chair Gary Gensler and the two other Democratic commissioners, Allison Herren Lee and Caroline Crenshaw, about how far to push the proposed new disclosure requirements, especially in light of the near certainty of litigation, and whether to require that the disclosures be audited. Just how tough should the proposal be? The article paints the SEC’s dilemma about the rulemaking this way: “If its rule lacks teeth, progressives will be outraged. On the flip side, an aggressive stance makes it more likely the regulation will be shot down by the courts, leaving the Biden administration with nothing. Either way, someone is going to be disappointed.”
SEC Commissioners speak
At yesterday’s “SEC Speaks” conference from PLI, SEC Chair Gary Gensler and Commissioners Allison Herren Lee, Elad Roisman and Caroline Crenshaw all delivered remarks on different topics. Gensler discussed the use of predictive digital analytics in finance, Lee examined the explosive growth of the private markets and proposed to address the lack of transparency by revising how we define “holders of record” under Section 12(g), Roisman focused on the SEC’s past efforts to facilitate capital formation by reviewing and streamlining existing regulation, and Crenshaw discussed crypto and the need for a meaningful exchange of ideas between innovators and regulators.
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