[June 10, 2026]

CFA Institute Survey Finds Investors Strongly Support Quarterly Reporting, Oppose Reducing Disclosure Requirements

CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals, today released new research examining investor views on quarterly versus semiannual reporting, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considers whether public companies should be permitted to report less frequently.

The report, Investor Perspectives: Quarterly Reporting - What Investors Tell Us About Quarterly Reporting, Why It Matters and Why They Support It in an Era of Artificial Intelligence - based upon a survey of 2,500 CFA Institute members around the world working as investment analysts and portfolio managers - found strong investor support for retaining mandatory quarterly reporting, as well as significant concerns regarding the implications of reducing reporting frequency.

The report also highlights that the debate regarding quarterly reporting is about disclosures more broadly and the information investors need to allocate capital effectively, as well as the implications of changing disclosure requirements for capital formation and investor protection.

Matthew Winters, CFA, CPA, Senior Director, Corporate Disclosures and Information Advocacy at CFA Institute, said:

"The survey results provide a clear and consistent message: Investors globally - not just in the U.S. - continue to view quarterly reporting as an essential feature of transparent, efficient, and trustworthy capital markets.

Respondents indicated that the benefits of quarterly reporting exceed its costs and expressed significant concerns that reducing reporting frequency could weaken comparability, increase information asymmetries, reduce transparency, and impair market efficiency.

Perhaps most notably, investors do not expect a voluntary reporting regime to preserve today's level of disclosure. Most respondents believe many companies would discontinue quarterly reporting if it became optional and that investors would ultimately receive less information, not more."

Key Survey Findings

The survey findings are based on an extensive 46-question survey of CFA Institute analysts and portfolio managers conducted in January 2026. The 2,500 rspondents also provided over 1,000 written comments, which are included in the report. The strong response rate reflects investors' interest in this important issue. The survey found:

• 62% of respondents oppose replacing quarterly reporting with semiannual reporting and 63% believe the benefits of quarterly reporting exceed their costs.
• Approximately 70% oppose granting companies flexibility to determine or change their own reporting frequency. Nearly 85% are concerned with the implications to comparability between companies because of flexibility of reporting frequency and format.
• Support is lower for semiannual reporting for just smaller or recently listed companies than support for adopting it across the board, with investors citing the same concerns about comparability and complexity.
• 82% support allowing voluntary quarterly reporting if semiannual reporting is adopted; however, only 32% of respondents expect companies would continue reporting quarterly if reporting became optional.
• Investors overwhelmingly view earnings releases and Form 10-Q filings as complementary disclosures rather than substitutes and 78% do not want to abandon the Form 10-Q filing requirement in a voluntary quarterly reporting regime.
• Investors expressed significant concerns regarding reducing reporting frequency, with a majority of respondents - 60-80%, depending on the potential implication - expressing apprehension across a variety of implications. Investors believe that six-month reporting intervals would be too long in current markets and could increase the cost of capital, stock volatility, and information asymmetries. Respondents also cited reduced comparability across companies, potential reductions in dividend frequency, greater reliance on voluntary disclosures and non-GAAP measures, heightened risks of unequal information access across investors, delayed disclosure of negative information, and the potential for increased insider trading due to longer periods between mandatory disclosures.
• Investors do not believe that reducing reporting frequency would foster more long-term decision-making behavior among companies or investors. 85% of respondents identified management incentives and compensation structures as significantly more important drivers of long-term decision-making than a 90-day change in reporting frequency.

Disclosure, Technology, and the Future of Capital Markets

The report notes that the debate is occurring amid rapid advances in artificial intelligence that are transforming how financial information is produced, disseminated, analyzed, and consumed. Investors increasingly rely on AI-enabled tools to process corporate disclosures, while public companies increasingly use technology to prepare them. Against this backdrop, many investors find it difficult to reconcile proposals to reduce disclosure frequency with broader technological developments that have made information faster, cheaper, and easier to analyze than ever before.

Sandra Peters, CPA, CFA, Senior Head, Corporate Disclosures and Information Advocacy at CFA Institute, said:

"The central question raised by investors is simple: What investor-focused problem is the SEC attempting to solve? Investors are not asking for less information. If anything, investors increasingly seek more timely information as companies navigate technological disruption, geopolitical uncertainty, economic volatility, and emerging risks.

Quarterly reporting has been a foundational element of the U.S. disclosure framework for more than five decades and, in many respects, is load-bearing regulation for investors. Any proposal to fundamentally alter that framework should be supported by robust empirical evidence, careful economic analysis, and meaningful engagement with investors before reducing access to timely, structured, and comparable information."

The report recommends maintaining mandatory quarterly reporting requirements, limiting flexibility in reporting frequency, and preserving formal reporting requirements such as Form 10-Q if voluntary quarterly reporting is permitted. It also recommends that regulators undertake significantly more empirical analyses regarding the effects of reducing reporting frequency on investors, capital formation, and market quality, as well as a thorough evaluation of whether reduced reporting frequency has delivered favorable outcomes in other jurisdictions that have adopted it.

Click here to review the full report: investor-perspectives-quarterly-reporting-2026.pdf

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260610520651/en/

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