A call by Donald Trump to ditch quarterly corporate reporting has received cautious support from an unlikely source: international investors pushing business to do more on longer-term sustainability issues, many lambasted by the U.S. president.
Trump on Monday called for companies to shift to six-monthly updates, adding his voice to those of business heavyweights including Berkshire Hathaway Chair Warren Buffett and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who have argued in the past that short-termism harms the economy.
Abandoning quarterly reporting would see the world’s biggest economy and the deepest capital market join a global shift away from the practice and could help those investors pushing boards to do more on issues such as climate change that are set to increasingly impact corporate value. “Responsible investment people have never been advocates of quarterly reporting, since it tends to encourage a greater focus on trading and less on good ownership,” said David Pitt-Watson, corporate governance expert and Fellow at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School.
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