SEC Votes for Earlier Financial Reports

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 5-0 Wednesday to require that some companies file financial reports earlier than the current deadline. At the same time, the SEC pushed back putting the new rule into play for large firms, to the early part of 2007, when most of the 2006 annual reports are issued, Reuters reports.

The new rule would require large companies with market capitalizations of more than $700 million to issue will have to put out their reports within 60 days after their fiscal year-end dates. Currently, the requirement is within 75 days. Midsize companies, with capitalizations ranging from $75 million to $700 million, will continue to have 75 days from the end of their fiscal year to file annual reports.

As for quarterly reports, both large and mid-size companies will have 40 days to file those reports, down slightly from the current 45 days.

The SEC isn't proposing any change for small-cap companies with market caps of less than $75 million. They will continue to have 90 days from the end of their fiscal year and 45 days from the end of each quarter to file reports.

SEC has also proposed a rule that will regulate the payouts to executives in tender offers. The proposal stated all shareholders, executives included, should be offered the same price for shares in a target company in an acquisition.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.