Government’s ongoing shutdown halts most of SEC agenda, guidance

Ryan Adams, a member of the firm’s Public Company Advisory & Governance practice and a former attorney in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, was featured in Pensions & Investments discussing how the ongoing U.S. government shutdown is affecting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) ability to carry out its agenda.

Ryan noted that the SEC’s work on rulemaking, oversight, and guidance has effectively been “brought to a screeching halt,” pausing progress on initiatives including cryptocurrency regulation, reporting reforms for public companies, and expanded access to alternative assets.

He explained that the shutdown has major implications for securities transactions and IPO activity, as companies will be unable to obtain necessary SEC approvals until the agency reopens. “It would be very risky for a company and their bankers to launch an IPO without an SEC sign-off,” Ryan said. “So I expect that you are going to see the majority of capital that would be in the IPO markets sitting on the sidelines waiting for this to resolve itself.”

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