US SEC to review data on firms with links to rogue states
By Judith Burns
WASHINGTON, Feb 10, 2004 (Dow Jones) — Securities regulators are weighing how to respond to an order from Congress to give investors and other federal agencies more information on corporate ties to states that sponsor terrorism, raising concerns among some business groups that the effort may inject politics into oversight of U.S. capital markets.
Congress, in the omnibus budget bill enacted last month, ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to identify U.S.-listed companies with ties to countries such as Cuba, Sudan, Iran and others that the U.S. says sponsor terrorism, and to require more disclosure to investors about corporate operations in high-risk areas around the world. Connections to rogue nations, whether large or small, “can have a material adverse effect on a public company’s operations, financial condition, earnings and stock price,” which would require disclosure to investors, a report accompanying the budget bill said.
The provision was sponsored by Rep. Frank Wolf (R., Va.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the SEC budget. A longtime human-rights advocate, the congressman worries that Americans may unwittingly invest in companies that do business in countries that sponsor terrorism or violate human rights.
To comply, SEC managing executive Laura Cox said the agency is planning to assign up to five employees to review public-company disclosure on business with rogue nations. Although the operation will be called the Office of Global Security Risk, it will be under the SEC’s corporation-finance division, which reviews corporate financial reports. At this point, SEC officials aren’t sure what they would do with the information aside from sharing it with other federal agencies.
Business groups say they oppose terrorism, but don’t want the SEC wading into politically charged areas outside its mission to protect investors.
We are very concerned that the creation of this office could be a first step toward politicizing the U.S. capital markets and would set a bad policy precedent,” the Securities Industry Association wrote in a recent letter to SEC Chairman William Donaldson.
Wall Street’s leading trade group warned that an SEC terrorism-tracking office could spawn offshoots for other hot-button political or social issues that lawmakers think warrant special scrutiny.
For now, the SEC is caught between opponents of the terrorism-tracking office and Rep. Wolf, a senior lawmaker who helps controls its budget.
“We take our appropriators very seriously,” said Ms. Cox. On the other hand, she said, the agency has heard concerns raised about Mr. Wolf’s approach to combat terrorism, “and we also take those concerns seriously as well.”
Federal agencies aren’t legally obligated by a bill’s report language, but as a practical matter they typically view it as the intent of Congress.