The FT reported on Saturday that:
Companies doing business in “terrorist-sponsoring states” could once again have their names under scrutiny under a controversial plan being revived by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
What the SEC has suggested is the development of a mechanism to facilitate greater access to companies’ disclosures concerning their business activities in or with countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism.
Which sounds like case specific country-by-country reporting to me.
Why not go the whole hog? Then we’d really know what was going on.
And the principle of transparency and accountability which the war on terror is at least in part meant to be defending would be enshrined within the process used to tackle the problem. Which can only add to its credibility.
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Unfortunately, rather than a springboard for better accounting principles, I think this effort by the SEC has far more to do with US foreign policy. Rather than being driven by investor need, I think the rationale is more centrally imposed, and Washington intends to use this in order to enforce some very questionable sanctions - the listed terrorist-sponsoring states are Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba and North Korea. Opinons on whether sancitons against all five are justifiable will vary but surely sanctions aginst Cuba, for example, are laughable. If the motivation is questionable, I’m not sure this will end up advancing the (laudable) cause of transparency.
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