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Strategies & Market Trends : Mr. Pink's Picks: selected event-driven value investments -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Pink who wrote (14176)	9/26/2000 8:27:32 PM
From: StockDung	Respond to of 18998

Securities groups push for delay in disclosure rule By Mark Weinraub NEW YORK, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Two securities groups have asked U.S. regulators to delay new rules designed to ensure key corporate information is released at the same time to all investors, saying companies do not have enough time to prepare for the change. The Securities and Exchange Commission had set Oct. 23 as the date for the rules, known as Regulation FD, to take effect. The fair disclosure rules ban companies from releasing key information to select Wall Street professionals only. The rules, approved in August, were hotly debated from the start, and the SEC received a record 6,000 letters commenting on the proposal. Implementation is set for the middle of corporate earnings season, when a large number of companies report their financial results for the third quarter of the year. The date will make it especially hard on companies to meet Regulation FD's standards, National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) Chief Executive Louis Thompson said. "Earnings releases for the third quarter of this year will fall on both sides of the effective date, making it difficult for issuers to draft appropriate earnings releases and prepare for analyst calls that are in compliance with Regulation FD," Thompson said in a letter to the SEC. The effective date should be pushed back until Dec. 29, according to the letter, which was dated Sept. 21. On Monday, the Securities Industry Association sent a letter to the SEC backing NIRI's request. "We have received their letters and their suggestion is under consideration now but we have not made a decision about it," an SEC spokesman said. Pushing the date back would require further action by the four-member commission, the spokesman said Wall Street professionals such as analysts and institutional investors fear the rule will cut down on the financial information companies release, making it harder for all investors to evaluate corporate performance. Companies also do not like it because they face fines if they disseminate news improperly. SEC Commissioner Laura Unger, who was the only commissioner to vote against the rule, said she doubted Regulation FD would ensure that individual investors would receive pertinent information about a company. The SEC has said it will conduct a study after Regulation FD is implemented to see if it is having the desired effect of keeping all investors informed about a company. 16:23 09-26-00