President Donald Trump on Monday proposed to reduce the frequency that public companies report financial information to their investors and the public, suggesting cutting requirements in half by going to two, instead of four, reports a year.
“This will save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Public companies in the United States have been required to publish quarterly reports for more than 50 years. Many markets in Europe require companies to report only twice a year.
It’s not the first time Trump has raised the idea. During his first term, he suggested moving to semiannual instead of quarterly reports, and the Securities and Exchange Commission explored the issue but never progressed to the point of changing the rules. Trump’s proposal would need to complete a multistep process overseen by securities regulators to become a rule.
A spokesperson for the SEC said that, at Trump’s request, the SEC “is prioritizing this proposal to further eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens on companies.”
Trump has made deregulation a cornerstone of his presidency, already moving to reduce the amount of information companies are required to report to investors, regulators and the public.
In March, under Trump’s direction, the Treasury Department said that it would no longer enforce anti-money-laundering rules that require domestic companies to report beneficial ownership; a beneficial owner is someone who might own a company through a trust or other vehicle that hides their identity. Foreign entities are still required to report their beneficial owners.
Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said at the time that the rule change was “part of President Trump’s bold agenda to unleash American prosperity by reining in burdensome regulations.”
However, while relaxing reporting regulations might ease the burden for corporate managers, critics say it would reduce the amount of information available to investors, regulators and the public.
This information in theory helps investors make better decisions with their money, allows regulators to spot financial crimes and other problems, and gives the public a regular look into the details of businesses that shape their lives. In recent earnings reports, companies revealed that they had increased prices or planned to do so to offset the cost of tariffs, which for some has run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
But some executives contend that the amount of time spent to compile dense reports packed with legal jargon and prepare for a barrage of often arcane questions from analysts on earnings calls could be better spent focused on running their businesses.
Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom Communications, said he found the rote aspects of quarterly earnings calls “boring” and recently started deploying an artificial intelligence-generated avatar of himself to read from a script instead, before taking over to answer analysts’ questions.
Some investors have also noted that while the intent of quarterly financial reports might be sound, they can encourage executives to make short-term decisions to meet quarterly market expectations, rather than focusing on the long-term health of the business.
And there is an element of farce to the quarterly earnings routine that is widely acknowledged among investors. For example, analysts broadly expect companies to lower expectations before a quarterly report so they can surprise investors and engineer a boost to their stock prices.
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