The announcement came just one day after five former chairmen of the SEC testified to Congress on Tuesday to urge new accounting rules to prevent future corporate catastrophes such as the one that bankrupted Enron Corp.

"These steps will provide significant improvements quickly while other proposals are considered," SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt said. "We will be working on our own and together with Congress, the President's Working Group, companies, investor groups and other interested participants. We anticipate further reform proposals covering financial reporting and disclosure requirements, accounting standard setting, regulation of the auditing process and profession and corporate governance."

Specifically, the Commission intends to propose rules that will:

• Provide accelerated reporting by companies of transactions by company insiders in company securities, including transactions with the company;
• Accelerate filing by companies of their quarterly and annual reports;
• Expand the list of significant events requiring current disclosure on existing Form 8-K. Such events could include changes in rating agency decisions, obligations that are not currently disclosed and lock-out periods affecting employee stock-ownership plans.
• Add a requirement that public companies post their Exchange Act reports on their web sites at the same time they are filed with the SEC; and 
• Require disclosure of critical accounting policies in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, contained in annual reports.

"Our financial disclosure system is the best in the world," Pitt said. "Investors can be confident in the system as we continue to work to improve it."

To add your voice to Letters to the Editor, write editor@smartpros.com. All letters become the property of SmartPros and may be edited for space, clarity, relevance and fairness upon publication. Read the most recent Letters to the Editor.