The US may end its requirement for listed companies to release quarterly financial reports, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considering liberalising a rule that has been in place since 1970. Under 17 CFR Part 240 – General Rules and Regulations, Securities Exchange Act, reports must be made on earnings in the first three quarters of a financial year, with projections being made in the following annual report.
But President Donald Trump has turned his iconoclastic ire on these requirements, writing in his Truth Social platform: ‘Subject to SEC Approval, Companies and Corporations should no longer be forced to ‘Report’ on a quarterly basis (Quarterly Reporting!), but rather to Report on a ‘Six Month Basis.’ This will save money and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies. Did you ever hear the statement that, ‘China has a 50 to 100 year view on management of a company, whereas we run our companies on a quarterly basis???’ Not good!!!’.
‘It’s a good time to look at the whole panoply of how people get information’
Away from short-termism
Speaking on CNBC television later, SEC chair Paul Atkins welcomed Trump’s intervention: ‘Semi-annual reporting is no stranger to our markets; our foreign private issuers do it right now and it was actually the rule until 1970… There’s been a lot of discussion over the past few years about how quarterly reporting emphasises short-term type of thinking… In principle to propose a change in our rules… will be a way forward.’
Arguing that the dissemination of financial information is more broadly based than in the past, with such data often being made available to retail investors as well as professionals, such as earnings calls and via third-party reports, he said: ‘It’s a good time to look at the whole panoply of how people get information.’
Atkins added: ‘There’s lots of complaints about short-termism, so let’s look at how we can address it,’ even though in some instances, he predicted, removing mandatory quarterly requirements might cause some companies to report more often, even monthly: ‘Investors are the bosses… It’s a good time to look at this,’ he said.
Mindset shift
Speaking at the commission’s headquarters in Washington, DC on 29 September, the SEC chair added that the proposal would be fast-tracked, with a proposal revealed by early next year.
‘A shift to a longer reporting period will result in longer periods of silence’
‘While quarterly reporting can cause a focus on short-term goals, a shift to a longer reporting period will result in longer periods of silence, where companies and insiders have knowledge of their results and the rest of the market is in the dark,’ Rakesh Gopalan, a partner at US-based law firm Troutman Pepper Locke, says. ‘It could lead to manipulation by companies, or at the least it could hamstring companies who would otherwise want to access the capital markets.
‘Of course, longer reporting periods are prevalent in other jurisdictions, including Europe, so it is possible to navigate these issues. It just involves a fundamental shift in mindset and processes in the US,’ adds Gopalan, who is a corporate governance expert.
However, a paper from the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance released in September 2025 supports the idea of scrapping quarterly reporting. It suggests that ‘it would ease the regulatory burden that discourages companies from going and remaining public’, and would be ‘a material step toward reducing short-termism’.
Better informed investors
Noting that quarterly reports are usually accompanied by earnings calls by CEOs and CFOs, the forum added that preparations for these interactions may take two weeks, denying executives two months annually of ‘time and energy that could be spent focusing on substantive priorities and executing on strategic goals’. The paper suggested an additional reform, requiring any earnings guidance be included with explanations of long-term strategic planning, giving more helpful information to investors.
Should the US scrap mandatory quarterly reporting for listed entities, it will be in good company. Even the European Union (EU) – not usually known for its regulatory levity – in 2013 scrapped requirements for listed companies to issue quarterly reports. Under directive 2013/34/EU, listed companies under most circumstances have to issue two financial reports a year, with the legislation stressing: ‘Union accounting legislation needs to strike an appropriate balance between the interests of the addressees of financial statements and the interest of undertakings in not being unduly burdened with reporting requirements.’
‘Less frequency doesn’t mean less transparency’
This was something of a U-turn for the EU, which had, under an earlier directive 2004/109/EC, insisted that EU public companies issue quarterly interim management statements.
The UK, then an EU member state, had complied with EU law, although initial research indicated listed companies were slow to abandon quarterly reporting, which was henceforth optional. The CFA Institute Research Foundation said that, within a year, only 9% of public companies immediately dropped interim quarterly financial reporting; they had already invested in data collection systems so, for many companies, potential savings were ‘relatively light’.
But by 2017, the Investment Association reported that more than 40% of FTSE 100 companies, and over 60% of FTSE 250 companies, no longer issued quarterly reports.
Quarterly reporting persists
The Harvard Law School paper, however, noted that some EU and UK companies, ‘particularly large multinational corporations, continued to produce some form of quarterly reporting in response to investor demand’.
Australia is another country that insists on semi-annual rather than quarterly financial reporting. And financial regulators in the US’s northern neighbour Canada are also pondering moving away from quarterly reporting. Such rules are agreed provincially rather than nationally in Canada, but Ontario, which is Canada’s business and financial hub, has required quarterly interim reports.
However, these may be made optional here, too, with Loui Anastasopoulos, CEO of the Toronto Stock Exchange, stressing the potential of semi-annual reporting: ’Less frequency doesn’t mean less transparency,’ he said on LinkedIn, ‘but rather adjusting reporting calendars to enable companies to focus on longer-term strategy and reduce costs.’
For the 66% of Canadian public companies that are small-and-medium-sized enterprises, Anastasopoulos added, ‘the burden and cost of frequent reporting can exceed the benefit’.
