Guidance: It, well, GUIDES us - In the White House - RegWatch

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Thursday, December 15, 2005

Guidance: It, well, GUIDES us

The SEC told reporters that it is working on new guidance to clarify its thinking on some enforcement matters, according to BNA's Daily Report for Executives:

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said Dec. 14 that the commission intends to issue formal guidance that "more clearly explain[s] objective criteria for imposing ... penalties" in enforcement actions.

Speaking to reporters after an open meeting of the commission, Cox said that the purpose of the document will be to "demystify" the process of levying penalties "internally, in [the Division of] Enforcement, and externally, for the regulated community that seeks to understand how the commission operates."

. . . .

The guidance will not represent a break with the past, because the law is the same . . . .He added that the commission is making an "effort to lay out in greater detail the substantive process of the application of the law to the facts that the commission goes through in every case."

This is exactly the kind of valuable information that agencies provide all the time. The White House's draft bulletin on "good guidance practices" would create disincentives to the production of such guidance, thus creating the risk that the public would be left in the dark until the agencies swoop in with fines.

Posted by Robert Shull