SEC Chairman Eyes ‘Gun-Jumping’ Rule Changes to Spur More IPOs

The Securities and Exchange Commission is mulling changes to decades-old rules that prohibit companies from certain communications during the going-public process, as the Wall Street regulator looks to boost initial public offerings.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said he would welcome reform to the so-called “gun-jumping” rules, which haven’t been updated in more than 20 years.

“The ways in which businesses communicated with employees, customers, and potential investors at that time bears little resemblance to how they do so now,” Atkins said in prepared remarks at a Stanford University event on Tuesday. “I look forward to constructing a more harmonized set ...