Question

List and Explain Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Disclosure Requirements

Answer 1

Disclosure requirements refer to the need to release and disclose all those relevant information that pertains to a company and that may influence the investment decision with regards to that company’s securities.

SEC has outlined that a company must provide disclosure items like information related to a company’s financial condition, its operating results, its management compensation, its key business and operational risks etc.

As per SEC requirements all publicly traded companies have to issue two annual reports – one for the shareholder’s of the company and one for SEC. The annual reports are known as form 10-Ks. A company that wants to go public and issue shares through routes like IPO will have to go through a two part registration – the first part is known as prospectus and the second part provides information like SWOT analysis, risk analysis and future outlook.

Different types of reports that makes a company’s reporting requirements are reports like annual reports on form 10-K, quarterly reports on form 10-Q, current reports on form 8-K, and proxy statements as per schedule 14A of SEC.