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- Trump said that companies should no longer have to report earnings to the SEC every quarter.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticized the suggestion, saying it undermines transparency.
- She says that’s the point — and that Trump doesn’t want “real numbers reported.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren isn’t a fan of President Donald Trump’s idea to end quarterly earnings reporting requirements.
“It undermines transparency,” the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Tuesday night. “That is the whole point here.”
As of now, the Securities and Exchange Commission requires publicly traded companies to report their earnings on a quarterly basis, meaning every three months.
Trump said on Monday that the requirement should be relaxed to every six months, and that doing so would save companies money and allow for more long-term thinking.
Warren argued that Trump is floating the change because he doesn’t “want real numbers reported in any of the economic areas, because he knows he’s in trouble on the economy.” She also mentioned Trump’s firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner after a disappointing July jobs report.
“This is the standard Donald Trump trick, and that is, if you don’t like the numbers, then try to get them out of sight,” Warren said. “And that’s what he’s trying to do.”
In a statement to BI, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers did not address Warren’s comments directly, instead taking a swipe at Warren’s previous identification as a Native American.
“The last person who should be giving advice on SEC requirements is Pocahontas,” Rogers said. “She couldn’t even tell the truth about her own background!”
Companies have reported earnings on a quarterly basis in the United States since 1970. The European Union moved from a quarterly earnings reporting schedule to a bi-annual reporting schedule in 2015.
Experts are conflicted on the change, which could also disrupt the existing ecosystem of corporate lawyers and data providers who help companies comply with the requirements.
The change won’t take place immediately. It would need to be approved by the SEC, though the agency has said that it will prioritize his proposal.
Quarterly earnings reports are one of several factors that investors might weigh when making decisions. A move to six-month reporting would mean that information would be available less often.
“Investors do not need to see less information about the companies that they are investing in,” Warren said. “After all, those companies are using investors’ money.”
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