SEC’s Draft Fiscal Years 2022-2026 Strategic Plan Is Available for Public Comment

On August 24th of this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released for public comment its draft strategic plan for the fiscal years 2022 to 2026. Prepared pursuant to the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010, the draft strategic plan lists three primary goals:

          •    Protecting working families against fraud, manipulation, and misconduct;
          •    Developing and implementing a robust regulatory framework that keeps pace with evolving markets, business models, and technologies; and
          •    Supporting a skilled workforce that is diverse, equitable, inclusive, and is fully equipped to advance agency objectives.

Press Release, SEC, SEC Publishes Draft FY22-26 Strategic Plan for Public Comment (Aug. 24, 2022). 

Part of the SEC’s proposed method for achieving the first goal – “[p]rotecting working families against fraud, manipulation, and misconduct” – is to continue focusing on uncovering both violations and key risks that could have an impact on individual investors, such as cybersecurity. Also part of the SEC’s plan for achieving this goal is to “[m]odernize design, delivery, and content of disclosures so investors, including in particular retail investors, can access consistent, comparable, and material information to make informed investment decisions.” Draft Strategic Plan at p. 9. In referring to their desire to modernize a company’s disclosure content, the SEC refers to investors’ increasing desire to obtain information related to a company’s cybersecurity hygiene policies. This is perhaps because, as the SEC acknowledges later in its draft strategic plan, “cybersecurity threats to the complex system that helps the markets function are constant and growing in scale and sophistication.” Draft Strategic Plan at p. 10. It will be interesting to see how cybersecurity plays into the modernization of these disclosures, and how companies will respond to any such updates to their disclosure requirements.

The press release for the draft strategic plan can be accessed here.

The draft strategic plan can be accessed here.

To submit a comment for the draft strategic plan, click here.