Regulation Fair Disclosure, the rule aimed at preventing private leaks of sensitive information about public companies, has just startled corporate compliance departments yet again.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent enforcement action against Office Depot for a Reg FD violation (its third within the last 14 months) dinged the company’s CEO and CFO for selectively sharing information with analysts and institutional investors in 2007 that earnings might not be where the market had been expecting. Nothing new there. But how the executives dropped hints—via oblique references to a slowing economy and stumbling rivals—has just painted another swath of gray across compliance departments’ already murky world.
