TORONTO – The long-established rule that companies report their financial results four times a year is being questioned again by U.S. President Donald Trump, but experts question the wisdom of moving to less frequent disclosures.
As he did in his first term, Trump on Monday called for the rules to be changed so that companies only have to report every six months, both to save money and so management can focus more on running their companies.
But governance expert and York University professor Richard Leblanc says quarterly reporting isn’t such a burden for companies, nor should it distract from longer-term efforts.
He says “a lot can go south in six months” that companies would be required to tell shareholders about in their quarterly reports, and that less information would mean less power to shareholders.
Carol Schleif, chief market strategist of BMO Private Wealth, says it would be hard to pull away from quarterly reports given the increasing expectations for instantaneous data, and that the move would risk investors filling the void with less reliable information.
The European Union and the U.K. shifted to quarterly reporting in the mid-2000s, only to go back to six-month reporting requirements in the 2010s, but studies show many companies chose to keep some level of quarterly reporting even after the requirement lifted.
— With a file from Daniel Johnson in Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2025.
