Good morning. At the AICPA conference earlier this week in Washington, D.C., U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins told an audience of accountants, auditors, and financial preparers that it’s time to make going public more accessible.
Atkins noted that over the past 30 years, there has been a significant net decline in the total number of publicly traded companies, due in part to mergers and bankruptcies outpacing IPOs. His goal, he said, is to “make it cool to be a public company” again—something he believes has “taken a hit over time.”
Atkins outlined three obstacles he believes are holding issuers back. The first is what he described as expensive, overly long disclosures that impose an unnecessary burden on issuers. The second is the threat of securities litigation. Atkins reiterated his support for allowing companies—where state law permits—to adopt bylaws mandating arbitration and applying “loser pays” fee-shifting provisions, and said the SEC staff will no longer block an IPO solely because such measures are included. “If the state allows it, then that will be fine with us,” he said.
His third concern centers on what he characterized as “politicized shareholder activists” who can influence corporate governance battles. Atkins expects any related policy proposals to take most of next year to move through the regulatory process.
