July 14, 2016
Good morning. I join my fellow Commissioners in welcoming John Coates, Nancy LeaMond, and Elisse Walter as the newest members of the Investor Advisory Committee. Glad to have you here as well as the returning members who have been re-appointed. I look forward to working with all of you.
The Investor Advisory Committee, under the leadership of the former chair Joseph Dear and current chair Kurt Schacht, has served as a forum to discuss a number of topics relevant to the Commission. I thank everyone – past and present committee members – for their service and dedication.
Today's agenda will discuss sustainability reporting and investment company reporting modernization. Although I will not be able to join you for the remainder of the morning session, I will be able join you for the afternoon discussion. I thank Chair White for moving the start time of today's Closed Commission Meeting to allow us to participate.
At yesterday's open meeting of the Commission, I referenced a 2008 survey conducted by Commission staff on retail investors with respect to corporate annual reports.[1] The same survey also asked retail investors about mutual fund shareholder reports.[2] Overall, half of the respondents said that the rarely, very rarely, or never read fund shareholder reports.[3] When asked what these investors do with the fund shareholder reports that were mailed to them, unsurprisingly nearly two-thirds indicated that they just throw them away.[4] So I look forward to any insight to be gleaned from this afternoon's discussion, especially as the Commission considers finalizing rules for investment company reporting modernization.[5]
Thank you.
[1] Michael S. Piwowar, Statement at Open Meeting on Disclosure Update and Simplification (July 13, 2015), available at https://www.sec.gov/news/statement/piwowar-statement-open-meeting-071316-disclosure-update.html.
[2] Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, Mandatory Disclosure Documents Telephone Survey (July 30, 2008), available at https://www.sec.gov/pdf/disclosuredocs.pdf.
[3] Id. at 78.
[4] Id. at 81.
[5] Investment Company Reporting Modernization, Release No. IC-31610 (May 20, 2015) [80 FR 33590 (June 12, 2015)].