SEC Chairman Eyes ‘Gun-Jumping’ Rule Changes to Spur More IPOs

The Securities and Exchange Commission is mulling changes to decades-old rules that prohibit companies from certain communications during the going-public process, as the Wall Street regulator looks to boost initial public offerings.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said he would welcome reform to the so-called “gun-jumping” rules, which haven’t been updated in more than 20 years.

“The ways in which businesses communicated with employees, customers, and potential investors at that time bears little resemblance to how they do so now,” Atkins said in prepared remarks at a Stanford University event on Tuesday. “I look forward to constructing a more harmonized set of rules that offer clarity, simplicity, and congruity with today’s technology.”

Atkins has lamented the decline in the number of US public companies since the 1990s and has pledged to roll back rules and craft industry-friendly policies to spur market action.

The agency last week unveiled sweeping proposals that could let new large issuers temporarily avoid many of the agency’s strongest disclosure rules. Part of that proposal would allow companies labeled “large accelerated filers” to skip certain requirements for up to five years.

The agency will take public feedback on that proposal for 60 days.