(April 24 – 17:40 ET) – The Securities and Exchange Commission held a roundtable today to examine the impact of the controversial Regulation Fair Disclosure on the quality of information that public companies release to investors.

The roundtable was launched by acting SEC chair Laura Unger, the lone commission member to vote against Regulation FD last year. Frank Fernandez, the chief economist of the Securities Industry Association, argued that the “quality” and “quantity” of financial information that companies provide has diminished and offered suggestions to improve the six-month-old regulation.

During his participation in a panel discussion, Fernandez, an SIA senior vice president, said the securities industry supports maximizing the flow of information to investors, it does not favor selective disclosure at the issuers’ initiation.

He also said, the SIA has surveyed investors, analysts, and public companies to assess the impact that Regulation FD has had on financial disclosures. It claims that its analysis shows that the regulation has had the impact it feared — less information, lower quality, higher costs, and greater volatility.

Fernandez encouraged the SEC staff to provide more guidance and clear up misunderstandings that public companies have in determining whether they need to broadly release financial information to investors. Fernandez suggested that the SEC should provide a more rigorous definition of “materiality.” He also said the SEC should also limit collateral liability that broker-dealers could suffer for violations of Regulation FD by issuers.