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Dear Friend,
This month, Better Markets launched the Better Take Action campaign. The name says exactly what it means. We’re taking on the SEC’s proposal to let public companies stop filing quarterly financial reports and instead disclose to investors just twice a year. This is one of the biggest rollbacks of investor disclosure in more than 50 years, and the comment deadline is July 6, 2026. I wrote about it in detail in a recent Substack, but the core problem is simple: cut mandatory reporting in half, and you create a six-month blackout window during which financial distress, failed product launches, ballooning debt, and even fraud or misconduct can all develop entirely out of view. But, often not out of view for everyone—just for most. Corporate insiders will always know, and the big institutions with their research departments and corporate contacts and access will know. The SEC’s job is supposed to protect investors and level the playing field. This proposal does the opposite, plus it’ll make mispricing and volatility more frequent.
I took the argument directly to retail investors this month, with a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) event hosted on r/Superstonk to discuss what’s at stake. There are millions of everyday investors and tens of millions of Americans saving for retirement who know exactly what quarterly reporting means to them—and exactly what losing it would mean. They are not sitting on the sidelines.
If you’re a trader, investor, retiree or someone who cares about accurate stock prices and low volatility, then I hope you’ll join us in taking action. Head to BetterTakeAction.org to submit your own comment letter before the window closes. It only takes two minutes.
The quarterly reporting battle was not the only fight we were waging on behalf of investors and markets at the SEC this month. We also filed comment letters opposing the Commission’s proposal to kill the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT)—the key market surveillance system used to catch wrongdoing and market manipulation. Eliminating it would effectively handcuff the agency. We also pushed back on the SEC’s proposals to make private markets even more opaque and to rescind rules that ensure investors receive the best available prices. None of these are isolated technical adjustments. They are part of the same pattern I described in an earlier piece I wrote here: a deliberate, systematic shift at the SEC from an investor protection agency into a management protection agency—that’s bad for investors, our markets, and ultimately our economy.
We were also active on two other fronts. On prediction markets, we filed an amicus brief exposing the CFTC’s role in enabling unregulated online gambling and published a fact sheet on why allowing insider betting on Google search data is indefensible. And on banking, I issued a statement on the banking agencies’ reckless capital proposals, which our three comment letters detailed. Those letters clearly demonstrated how the Basel III, GSIB, and standardized approach capital proposals would tear down the post-2008 guardrails that stand between the big banks and the next taxpayer bailout. This week’s Fed stress test results—which our team showed were nothing more than a hollow exercise—only drive that point home. That’s why you’ll see us fighting harder than ever in the coming months for adequate capital at the biggest, most dangerous Wall Street banks, for a level playing field that allows community banks to thrive, and for policies that drive real broad-based economic growth and secure your family’s economic future.
One thing remains clear: what is happening right now across the SEC, the Fed, and the CFTC is not accidental, and it is not routine. It is a coordinated, accelerating effort to take the cops off the beat, reduce transparency, and give the financial industry free rein before anyone notices, and before anyone can stop it. We noticed. We’re fighting. And we are not stopping.
Read on to see exactly what we did about it in June.
With you in the fight,
Dennis M. Kelleher
Co-Founder, President, and CEO
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