Securities Regulation Daily Wrap Up, SEC NEWS AND SPEECHES—Atkins calls for ‘strategic’ collaboration with international counterparts; applauds EU’s digital asset regime, (Sep 10, 2025)

By Suzanne Cosgrove

The SEC chairman spoke Wednesday in Paris at an inaugural OECD Roundtable on Global Financial Markets.

Saying it is a new day at the SEC “as we realign the agency’s enduring principles with emergent possibilities,” Commission Chairman Paul Atkins told an international audience of senior finance officials and regulators that he wants to ensure that America is “second to none” in fostering an economic climate that supports financial innovation.

Nonetheless, Atkins said he looks forward to collaborating with the SEC’s international counterparts.

“Since the advent of the SEC, our rules have granted special accommodations for foreign companies that access the U.S. capital markets,” Atkins noted. “Those accommodations recognize the differences in business and market practices, accounting standards and corporate governance requirements, between U.S. and foreign companies.”

Foundational update needed? The current standard by which foreign companies qualify for special accommodations was developed in 1983, he noted, although it has been revised periodically to address changes in the global markets and to protect U.S. investors.

Atkins said he has asked the Commission to approve the issuance of a concept release to get public feedback on whether the standard should again be updated.

“Our goal is to better understand the impact on U.S. investors and the U.S. market resulting from significant changes to the population of foreign companies listed in the United States over the last two decades,” he said.

“Among the notable changes are the makeup of foreign companies reporting to the SEC and the trend of incorporating in a jurisdiction, such as the Cayman Islands, that differs from where the company is headquartered, operates, and is subject to a governance framework that implicates shareholder interests.”

Accounting standards reviewed. Addressing the topic of accounting standards, Atkins noted U.S. companies prepare their financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. In contrast, foreign companies have been allowed to present financial statements prepared according to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), without reconciliation to U.S. GAAP.

When the SEC eliminated the reconciliation requirement in 2007, it noted that “the IASB’s sustainability, governance and continued operation in a stand-alone manner as a standard setter are significant considerations” for its elimination, Atkins said.

In 2021, the IFRS Foundation announced the formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and its trustees are now responsible for securing funding for both the IASB and the ISSB. “This recent expansion of the IFRS Foundation’s remit cannot divert its focus from its long-standing core responsibility of funding the IASB,” he told the group.

“If the IASB does not receive full, stable funding, then one of the underlying premises for the SEC’s elimination of the reconciliation requirement for foreign companies in 2007 may no longer be valid” and may need to be reviewed, he said. Project Crypto “unleashed.” “As we call on our partners to foster investor confidence and dynamic markets in their jurisdictions, these same priorities compel us, in the United States, to unleash the potential of digital assets in ours,” Atkins said.

As Congress drafts comprehensive crypto legislation, the President’s Working Group has directed U.S. regulators to move swiftly toward modernizing outdated rulebooks, Atkins said. “At the agency, we are delivering on this mandate through Project Crypto, a sweeping initiative to modernize the securities rules and regulations to enable our markets to move on-chain,” he added.

“Our priorities are clear: we must provide certainty regarding the security status of crypto assets. Most crypto tokens are not securities, and we will draw the lines clearly,” he said. “We must ensure that entrepreneurs can raise capital on-chain without endless legal uncertainty. And we must allow for ‘super-app’ trading platform innovation that increases choice for market participants.”

Collaboration opportunities. Europe has moved early on digital assets, Atkins said. “The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation exemplifies a comprehensive digital assets regime. Some European policy makers have already called for a ‘MiCA 2’ to address decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, and digital asset lending.

“I applaud our European allies for their foresight in this initial attempt at regulatory clarity and think it is paramount for the United States to learn from these efforts,” he said. “Working together, as Alexandre de Tocqueville might have put it, we can ‘extend the sphere’ of freedom and prosperity.”

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