Following court victory against proposed SEC disclosure rule, oil companies request its redrafting
After winning a court victory that sent anti-bribery regulations back to the SEC, some of the world’s largest oil companies have now changed their mind and are asking the regulator to start drafting new regulations, and fast.
ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell have urged SEC chairman Mary Jo White to quickly state that the commission intends to draft new regulations aimed at obliging companies to report payments to foreign governments.
Otherwise, the oil companies warn, the UK will enforce similar regulations of its own, becoming the first country in Europe to do so, and the SEC will miss a chance to influence the shape of the UK rules. They also say speedy regulations from the SEC would allow world-leading regulators to get their legislation in sync so oil companies don’t have to undertake different types of reporting for different countries.
A US court decision in the middle of last year suspended proposed regulations that would have forced oil, gas and mining companies to disclose all payments to foreign governments and officials exceeding $100,000. The UK has since said it plans to implement similar rules late this year, setting the stage for adoption by the rest of the European Union.
‘An ideal solution to the issue might be that compliance with the reporting rules in one country would be deemed to satisfy the reporting requirements in another country, notwithstanding variations in detail,’ states the letter.
But the letter, written by Royal Dutch Shell CFO Simon Henry and Patrick Mulva, vice president and controller for ExxonMobil, hints that speedy action by the SEC may also have another effect desired by the industry: slowing down the UK regulators.
‘We recognize it would be impractical to expect regulatory action from the SEC in time to influence the UK on the current UK timetable,’ the oil executives write. ‘We believe, however, that if the SEC were to take concrete steps to indicate it will take up 1504 rulemaking this year, the UK government might be willing to defer implementation of its transparency legislation.’
