NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Major publicly traded U.S. companies must begin disclosing their exposure to China as part of a pilot program to inform investors and policymakers of the potential risk, explained Jay Clayton, chief executive officer, on Tuesday. of the regulator of the US stock market, to the legislators.
Clayton will appear at a hearing organized by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which will also take depositions from Wall Street investor Jim Chanos and short seller Anne Stevenson-Yang. The committee studied the risks that China poses to the financial stability of the United States.
In prepared testimony, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will suggest that large companies with a market capitalization of more than $50 billion or with revenues or expenses in China of more than $10 billion disclose their exposure to the second largest economy in the world. .
It will also recommend that companies explain how their operations will be affected if economic relations between the United States and China are disrupted.
Although Clayton is no longer part of the Government, his opinions as the former chairman of the SEC continue to carry the weight of the authorities in Washington. He currently practices law in the private sector.
“The goal here is to allow investors and policymakers to understand and assess how major companies view the risks associated with China and how they are preparing to address them,” he said, adding that greater disclosure reduces systemic risk because investors and policymakers can act more proactively. quick.
Clayton spent more than 20 years as a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP before becoming the 32nd chairman of the SEC in 2017 under former President Donald Trump. He currently serves as a senior policy advisor at a law firm based in New York.
His proposals come at a time when relations between the world’s two largest economies have become increasingly strained after a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over US airspace earlier this year.
