KMK Law Corporate & Securities Blog

On Friday, May 12, 2023, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced that it had filed a lawsuit against the SEC to prevent implementation of the SEC’s new Share Repurchase Disclosure Modernization rules, which KMK has recently discussed. The Chamber filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a conservative leaning court that has issued several high profile rulings adverse to the Biden administration. 

On April 24, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission extended the time period to take action on proposed listing standards to implement the Dodd-Frank “Clawback Rules.” As discussed in a previous blog post, the SEC adopted Rule 10D-1, which required U.S. stock exchanges to adopt listing standards that comply with the SEC’s Clawback Rules.

On March 14, 2023, DXC Technology Company (“DXC”) settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for $8 million regarding alleged misleading disclosures in DXC’s public filings. The SEC claimed DXC made misleading disclosures related to its non-GAAP financial performance between 2018 and 2020.

On February 22, 2023, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and on February 24, 2023, Nasdaq filed proposed listing standards with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt executive compensation recovery rules. These proposed listing standards implement SEC Rule 10D-1 (the “Clawback Rule”) mandated by Section 954 of the Dodd-Frank Act. The SEC’s final rule directed U.S. stock exchanges to adopt listing standards requiring all listed companies to develop, implement, comply with and disclose a written policy providing for the recovery of incentive-based compensation received by executive officers where that compensation is based on erroneously reported financial information. The stock exchanges will prohibit the initial or continued listing of any security of an issuer that is not in compliance.

On December 15, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “NPRM”) that would implement provisions of the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) regarding access to and protection of beneficial ownership information (“BOI”).

On December 14, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission amended insider trading rules by adopting new trading restrictions and disclosures to address potential abuses by executives. According to SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s statements in the SEC’s press release these amendments are needed to fill “potential gaps” where insiders trade “opportunistically on the basis of material nonpublic information.” The new rules amend Rule 10b5-1’s affirmative defense provisions to insider trading liability, create new reporting requirements for issuers, and update beneficial ownership reporting requirements for insiders.

On October 7, 2022, the SEC reopened the public comment periods for eleven proposed rules including, among others, proposed rules relating to the following: the enhancement and standardization of climate-related disclosures for investors; enhanced ESG disclosures for investment funds and investment advisers; cybersecurity breach and risk disclosures; share buyback disclosures; and SPAC projections. The SEC reopened the comment periods after it discovered a technological error had prevented it from receiving certain comments.  While affected comments were largely submitted in August 2022, the error is reported to have occurred as early as June 2021.

On September 29, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued the highly anticipated final rule, Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirements (the “Final Rule”), implementing the beneficial ownership disclosure requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”). The CTA drastically expands current beneficial ownership reporting obligations in order to combat the illicit use of shell companies and to shift the burden of identifying beneficial owners of such companies from financial institutions to the government itself.

On May 2, 2022 the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a sample comment letter addressing disclosures companies should consider regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The SEC Staff believes companies should provide detailed disclosures of their direct or indirect exposure to Russia, Belarus, and/or Ukraine including through operations, investments, and potential cybersecurity and supply chain risks. A link to the sample letter is here.

The sample comment letter lists several topics subject to disclosure consideration the SEC Staff will focus on:

• Companies ...

On March 21, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) at a virtual open meeting proposed rules to expand and standardize issuers’ climate-related disclosures. The proposed rules would utilize mandatory, prescriptive disclosures in periodic reports and registration statements to address topics related to greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions and global climate change. The Commission acknowledged that in 2010, the SEC required disclosure of climate-related impacts on issuers’ businesses but since then, awareness of climate-related incidents, GHG ...