Corp Fin has announced a "realignment" of its disclosure program "to promote collaboration, transparency and efficiency," effective yesterday. As part of the new realignment, companies have been reassigned to one of seven new industry-focused offices.
The staff will be realigned into four "groups":
- Disclosure Review Program. This group is charged with the review of filings and will comprise seven industry-focused "offices": Energy & Transportation, Finance, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, Real Estate & Construction, Technology, Trade Services. Interestingly, a non-lawyer, Kyle Moffatt, Corp Fin's Chief Accountant, will head up the Disclosure Review Program. Each of the seven industry-based offices—a reduction from the current eleven industry groups—will be led by a "Chief" with the assistance of a "Senior Advisor." (The names of the Chiefs and Senior Advisors are included in the announcement.) Corp Fin will continue to assign companies to the offices based on company SIC codes. Companies will now be able to look up the new offices to which they have been reassigned by looking for the office assignment appearing in the shaded summary at the top of each company's EDGAR filing history on the SEC's website. Corp Fin advises that, to the extent practicable, staff working on active filing reviews will complete those filing reviews. Inquiries can made at CFDisclosureOPS@sec.gov
- Specialized Policy and Disclosure. This group, headed by Michele Anderson, will include the Offices of International Corporate Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions and Structured Finance, and will also oversee all of Corp Fin corporate governance policy matters.
- Office of Risk and Strategy. This group, headed by Shelly Luisi, will advise the filing review teams about "developing risks and evolving disclosures." See for example, this PubCo post, which discusses the staff's recent urging of consideration of hot topics such as the LIBOR transition. Will climate change risk be on the agenda?
- Office of Assessment and Continuous Improvement. Cicely LaMothe will head this group, which will "evaluate the effectiveness" of the Corp Fin disclosure review program.
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