Chinese firms should face faster US stock delisting over audit rules, SEC chairman Gary Gensler tells lawmakers
- The top US securities regulator says he supports a bill in Congress that allows for faster removal from American markets for not complying with disclosure rules
- Lawmakers and the financial industry have pressed the SEC to force Chinese companies to improve disclosure standards
The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday urged Chinese firms to comply with American auditing rules and said the agency supported legislation that would allow for faster delisting.
Gary Gensler, testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, said that the agency has “had discussions directly with the Chinese authorities” about the potential speeding up of delisting and that “the clock is ticking”.
The bill – the Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act – would reduce the amount of time US-traded Chinese companies have to hand over their audits to US regulators to two years from three years before they can be delisted from American exchanges.
The Senate passed the bill in June but the House of Representatives has yet to vote on it.
Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana and one of the bill’s sponsors, said on Tuesday that they were “having a little trouble getting the House to take it up” and asked Gensler if he would ask members of the lower chamber to vote on the measure.