Tag: Paul Atkins

Since 1970, U.S. public companies have been mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide financial updates every three months via quarterly earnings reports. This 55-year-old tradition could soon be cut in half under the Trump administration, which is seeking to move to semi-annual reports. The proposal has drawn both praise and criticism from some of Wall Street’s most influential leaders.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, voiced his support for President Donald Trump’s suggestion during an interview with Bloomberg TV yesterday (Oct. 7). “I would welcome it,” he said, noting that quarterly forecasts make “CEOs get their back up against a wall.” “They have to meet these things—earnings—and then they start doing dumb stuff,” he added.

Trump floated the proposal last month, arguing that reporting earnings every six months instead of three would “save money and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies.” The President previously pushed for a similar change in 2018 during his first term, when the SEC solicited public feedback but ultimately left the quarterly requirement in place.

This time, however, the SEC appears more willing to act. The agency has indicated that the proposal will be a priority, with Paul Atkins, the SEC’s chair, calling the President’s request “timely” and something the SEC is “working to fast-track.” A draft proposal could be released in the next few months, according to Atkins.

Dimon said JPMorgan would still report earnings quarterly, but with “much less stuff.” He described the requirement as part of a larger problem of “endless rules” that make it harder for companies to go public. “We’ve gone from 8,000 public companies in 1996 to, like, 4,000 today,” he told Bloomberg. “You want an active market, and we’ve kind of crushed it.”

Dimon isn’t alone in supporting the potential shift. Adena Friedman, CEO of Nasdaq, praised Trump’s proposal after it was announced, arguing that quarterly reporting encourages “short-termism“—an excessive focus on immediate results. In a LinkedIn post, she called for “common-sense reforms to reduce the burden on publicly listed companies.”

What financial leaders think of quarterly reporting

The benefits of semi-annual reporting are evident, according to David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs. Fewer earnings reports free up time for companies and allow executives to take a long-term view, he remarked during a talk last month at Georgetown University. “As a CEO, I’d obviously rather do two earnings calls a year than four earnings calls a year,” he said.

Still, Solomon admitted that eliminating quarterly reports could reduce transparency. “I’m still thinking it through, and the firm’s still thinking it through,” he added, noting that he has yet to decide whether he supports the change.

Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, however, has made up his mind. “I don’t understand the merits of holding back from the market, readily knowable information,” he told CNBC in September, warning that accountability could suffer if longer gaps between reports are allowed. “In this day and age, quarterly reporting is fair,” added Griffin. Griffin agreed with Dimon’s view that overregulation discourages initial public offerings, saying barriers to expanding the number of publicly owned companies should be addressed.

This isn’t the first time financial leaders have questioned the quarterly reporting model. In 2018, Dimon and Warren Buffett co-authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed urging companies to reduce or eliminate quarterly earnings forecasts. They argued that such forecasts push companies toward short-term thinking and discourage those with longer-term goals from going public. “Our views on quarterly earnings forecasts should not be misconstrued as opposition to quarterly and annual reporting,” wrote Dimon and Buffett, who maintained that transparency remains “an essential aspect of U.S. public markets.”