A looming government shutdown would reduce U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staffing to “skeletal” levels, stopping it from approving companies’ Wall Street debuts and hindering its ability to respond to any market turmoil, its chair told lawmakers on Wednesday.
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Gensler said the agency would lose more than 90% of its workforce to unpaid furloughs, leaving a “skeletal” staff to perform essential functions, which include monitoring U.S. markets, according to the agency’s contingency plan.
Other everyday functions, such as writing rules or approving companies’ initial public offerings (IPOs), would be frozen. “If a company were deciding to go public or raise offerings, they’d want to go effective before Friday if they’re ready to,” Gensler said. “If not, they might be in a sort of subliminal state where they can’t access the markets because we can’t effectively review those.”
Source: As government shutdown looms, companies should go public ‘before Friday,’ SEC chief says | Reuters
