Earlier today, Fran Seegull, President of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, testified at a House Financial Services Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets hearing on E, S, G and W: Examining Private Sector Disclosure of Workforce Management, Investment, and Diversity Data.

Seegull’s testimony emphasized the need for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to pursue a rulemaking on standardized corporate human capital management disclosures, which are critical factors for investor decision-making.

“Transparency and accountability are the hallmarks of efficient markets,” Seegull told Members of Congress. “The current lack of information creates market inefficiencies, harming investors and weakening the entire financial system. It is in the long-term interest of both individual companies and the wider economy to be responsive in disclosing these factors for investors.”

Other key points in Seegull’s testimony included the following:

It is clearly within the mandate of the SEC to require standardized corporate disclosures on human capital management factors;
Disclosures related to workforce diversity data are particularly important to investors;
Human capital management disclosures would not create significant burdens on issuers;
How the SEC proceeds on standardized corporate workforce disclosures is a matter of American economic competitiveness.

The Alliance will continue to engage with members of the federal government and collaborate with field partners to push for streamlined sustainability disclosure frameworks that will cement the transparency, accountability and efficiency of our capital markets.

Related: In June of this year, nearly 50 investor and business organizations joined the Alliance in writing a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler encouraging the agency to prioritize standardized disclosures on human capital management factors.