The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) commended the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for reducing disclosure requirements for publicly held community banks.
The rule threshold to qualify for scaled disclosures from $75 million to $250 million for public floats or the portion of the firm that is publicly held. Public companies with public floats between $250 million and $700 million are also eligible for the scaled disclosures if their annual revenues are less than $100 million.
ICBA officials said the rule would promote capital formation and reduce compliance costs without impacting investor protections.
“ICBA and community bankers thank the Securities and Exchange Commission for unanimously approving this common-sense update to its disclosure requirements,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said. “While this rule will support capital formation and lending in local communities, ICBA continues urging the agency to extend the exemption to the auditor-attestation requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley section 404(b). We’re encouraged that SEC Director Jay Clayton directed staff to examine this request and look forward to working with the agency on this issue.”
ICBA also endorsed the recommendation of the SEC’s Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies to exempt these companies from the Sarbanes-Oxley section 404(b) auditor-attestation requirements. These banks are already subject to auditing requirements by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., ICBA said.