U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said President Donald Trump’s suggestion of companies reporting on a semiannual basis would be good news for investors.
Trump proposed scrapping quarterly earnings reports in a Truth Social post on Monday, saying it would allow company executives to focus on long-term goals rather than fixate on short-term metrics.
“President Trump realizes that whether it’s the U.K., [or] it is the U.S., our public markets are atrophying, and this might be one way to bring back and cut costs for public companies without harming investors,” Bessent told CNBC in London Tuesday.
It comes as many companies choose to remain privately held, rather than list publicly, partly due to increased scrutiny and compliance costs each quarter. The number of publicly listed companies in the U.S. has fallen from more than 7,000 in 1996 to less than 4,000 in 2020.
Trump also suggested that scrapping quarterly reports would bring the U.S. in line with many foreign jurisdictions that already follow a semiannual reporting regime.
