Late Friday filings with the SEC

Dominic Jones, writing on the IRWebReport.com web site, waxes about how the SEC fell into the same trap with business journalists that many companies it’s supposed to regulate have done — make a major announcement on a late Friday.

The SEC decided to announce on the Friday before Christmas that it was going to allow companies to report lower pay amounts for corporate executives in their upcoming shareholder reports.

Jones believes that the trick is so well known by reporters that they now look for late Friday announcements.

Jones wrote, “Unfortunately for the SEC, the fact that the announcement came late on the Friday before Christmas raises questions about why the change wasn’t done more openly.

“So it’s really not that surprising to see headlines like the one below from Dow Jones today:

SEC Slammed After Executive Pay U-Turn

“In it the SEC’s ‘last-minute decision to reverse course’ and ‘loosen’ the rules is heavily criticized by Rep. Barney Frank, incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, who labels the regulatory u-turn ‘regrettable’ and says it underscores the need for congress to act against the ‘problem of executive compensation.’

“The New York Times draws attention to the timing of the SEC announcement. In the story’s first paragraph, the paper describes it as ‘a move announced late on the last business day before Christmas’ as if that is a highly relevant fact.

“Of course, there was lots of space in today’s paper after the long weekend so the article itself provides a thorough review of the rule change and its implications. (Another reason not to issue bad news on Friday.) Both SEC chairman Christopher Cox and division of corporation finance director John White were interviewed for the Times article.”

Read more here.