ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 6, 1996 TAG: 9603060053
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
The Securities and Exchange Commission embraced a new report Tuesday that calls for simplifying corporate finance regulations by scrapping or modifying one-quarter of rules and half of all related forms.
The proposals by an internal SEC task force are aimed at making securities filings more understandable and informative. The changes are expected to cut expenses for raising money in financial markets.
SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt called the proposals ``an enormous task'' and said they would affect ``thousands of filings each year, requiring perhaps thousands of hours for lawyers and other experts to prepare.''
The report recommends changes in three broad categories: weeding out duplicative or outdated forms; making information in SEC documents more readable and informative; and reducing the cost of securities offerings and improving access to the markets for smaller companies.
Within about a month, the agency intends to release new ``plain English'' guidelines to companies to make their securities prospectus documents easier to read and understand.
Business groups, including the American Business Conference and Association of Publicly Traded Companies, praised the new SEC effort.
The report recommends elimination of several obscure rules, such as ``Regulation B,'' which streamlines registration of some oil and gas investments. Another broader rule for small businesses basically does the same thing, he said.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB