Wall Street’s top regulator on Wednesday criticized two recent European laws on companies’ disclo
sures of their environmental, social and governance impacts, underscoring the shift in U.S. financial regulation since President Donald Trump took office.
In an address to an event held in Paris by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paul Atkins, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exch
ange Commission, said the laws could impose costs on investors and called on European authorities to focus on promoting free enterprise instead.
“I have significant concerns with the prescriptive nature of these laws and their burdens on U.S. companies, the
osts of which are potentially passed on to American investors and customers,” Atkins said, according to prepared remarks.
Though Atkins noted recent changes to ease the laws’ burdens, he said more work was necessary, adding that Europe should focus on cutting firms’ reporting obligation
s “rather than pursuing ends that are unrelated to the economic success of companies” or their shareholders.
The European Union last year adopted a law, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, requiring larger compan
ies to verify whether their supply chains use forced labor or cause environmental damage, and to address this if they do.
However, this was watered down to win the support of some EU members.
Separately, the European Commission in February proposed looser environmental and corporate sustainability stan
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dards under the EU’s corporate sustainability reporting directive, which requires companies to disclose information abou
t their environmental and social impacts to investors and consumers.
In a three-way deal involving carriers, underwriters, holding companies and more, catastrophe-focused managing general underwriter S
ageSure announced it will acquire the managing general agent for Florida-based Olympus Insurance Co.
At the same time, the parent company for SageSure’s carrier partners Auros and Interboro Insurance will take
over Olympus Insurance Co., the companies said early Wednesday.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. SageSure, headquartered in New Jersey, said the move will expand the firm’s presence in the improving Florida market.
As of the first quarter this year, Olympus held some 80,200 policies, mostly for more-affluent homeowners, state
regulator data shows. The combined companies will now have more than 130,000 policies in Flori
da and about $700 million in gross written premium, SageSure noted.