Newspoints

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a new rule, Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD), which will require US companies to release ‘material’ market-sensitive information to the public at the same time as it is issued to analysts, professional investors and others. The rule, introduced last December, is the culmination of a long campaign by the SEC’s chairman, Arthur Levitt, to increase investors’ access to the US markets. Although its scope has been considerably narrowed from the original proposal, the Securities Industry Association still says it is ‘unacceptable’.