SEC Chair White Outlines SEC Disclosure Developments

SEC Chair Mary Jo White reviewed the development of SEC disclosure in corporate governance. She focused on board diversity, non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and sustainability reporting.

Chair White reported that the SEC staff is preparing recommendations to the Commission to amend the rule requiring companies' proxy statements to include "more meaningful board diversity disclosures on their board members and nominees where that information is voluntarily self-reported by directors." She emphasized that the SEC's "lens on board diversity disclosure needs to be refocused in order to better serve and inform investors."

Chair White discussed the reporting of non-GAAP financial measures, voicing "significant concern" over companies that take the flexibility of non-GAAP information "far and beyond what is intended and allowed." She cautioned that "the non-GAAP information, which is meant to supplement the GAAP information, has become the key message to