TheCorporateCounsel.net

It’s pretty apparent from looking at a quick tally of investor comments on the SEC’s semiannual reporting proposal that they are universally opposed to it and aren’t happy that it seems almost inevitable that the SEC will move forward with it, their opposition notwithstanding.

Investors who are angered that their comments are likely to be given short shrift may get some sympathy from an unexpected source – public companies and their advisors.  That’s because, as Gunster’s Bob Lamm pointed out around the time the regimes changed, issuers found themselves in the same position during the Gensler era.  Of course, people being what they are, not everyone may respond with sympathy. My guess is that there’s a healthy dose of schadenfreude among the issuer community as well.

There’s always tension between the SEC’s investor protection mandate and its desire to promote capital formation, so issuers and investors are unlikely to ever be unanimous in their support of the SEC’s regulatory initiatives.

Still, dramatic shifts in the regulatory climate every four years that leave one side or the other enraged at rule changes and chomping at the bit to undo them when their side gets back in power isn’t exactly an ideal model for financial regulation. Unfortunately, it appears to be one we’re going to be stuck with for a while.

– John Jenkins