SEC's 'Make IPOs Great Again' Initiative Targets Reduced Compliance Burden

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins is on a mission to make going public less painful for young companies. He wants his agency's job to be setting rules, not deciding who wins. The number of publicly traded US companies has dropped roughly 40% since the mid-1990s.

Atkins' 'Make IPOs Great Again' initiative aims to lower the compliance burden for growth-stage companies. This is by proposing a new optional semiannual reporting framework using Form 10-S, which would allow companies to report every six months instead of quarterly.

The initiative also targets disclosure frameworks. Atkins wants disclosures refocused on materiality, meaning companies would only need to report information that actually matters to investors.