Federal regulators are sketching out a lighter-touch approach to capital markets, as Republican-led states push to attract companies and investment with fewer rules and lower costs.
At a conference in Miami, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins laid out what he described as a return to “first principles,” including efforts to scale back some disclosure requirements and revisit how the agency approaches corporate governance.
“Too many SEC requirements that began as a framework to inform have become instruments to obscure,” Atkins said. Regulators should instead focus on providing investors with the “minimum effective dose” of information needed to make ...