Conflict Minerals Reporting Requirements
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The New SEC Conflict Minerals Rule: Overcoming the Challenges of Compliance
The GAO has just issued its 2022 Report on Conflict Minerals, which examines companies’ conflict minerals compliance in 2022. As you probably know, the SEC’s conflict minerals rules were originally mandated by Congress in an...more
As a reminder, conflict minerals disclosures on Forms SD are required to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) no later than June 1, 2021. The conflict minerals disclosure rules and related guidance...more
As a reminder, conflict minerals disclosures on Forms SD are required to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) no later than June 1, 2020. This remains true despite the impact of COVID-19, given that...more
Development International has released its annual survey of conflict minerals reports for the 2016 reporting period which were filed in 2017. Despite the SEC’s no action position which relaxed conflict minerals reporting...more
On April 7, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") Division of Corporate Finance (the "Division") indicated that it will not recommend enforcement of the conflict minerals source and chain of custody due...more
The GAO has recently issued its third annual report on conflict minerals. The GAO is required by Dodd-Frank to report annually on the effectiveness of the SEC’s conflict minerals rule in promoting peace and security in the...more
GAO released an analysis of a generalizable sample of conflict minerals disclosures filed with SEC in 2015. The analysis found that an estimated 49 percent of companies in 2015 reported having determined whether the conflict...more
It’s Friday and time for another overview of developments in the field of business and human rights that we’ve been monitoring. This week’s post includes: a jury verdict in the Quinteros v. DynCorp litigation; the latest...more
It is clear that Michael Piwowar, Acting Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) is not a fan of the conflict minerals rule. Earlier this month, the Acting Chairman and the Division of Corporation Finance...more
On April 5, just prior to the release of Corp Fin’s Updated Statement on conflict minerals, the Senate Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy held a hearing on the effects on the Democratic Republic of the Congo of...more
The conflict minerals saga continues. Background - In April 2014, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in National Association of Manufacturers v. SEC held that the conflict minerals rule’s requirement that...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) Division of Corporate Finance issued a new statement adding some uncertainty to company obligations and enforcement exposure under the SEC conflict minerals rule...more
Bloomberg BNA is reporting that the State Department has launched a new review of “how best to support responsible sourcing of conflict minerals,” which will continue through April 28. Although it’s not known whether the SEC...more
It’s Friday and time for another overview of developments in the field of business and human rights that we’ve been monitoring. This week’s post includes: a federal court decision holding that U.S.-based companies may be...more
The acting chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Michael S. Piwowar, recently released two public statements concerning the conflict minerals rule applicable to companies that file Exchange Act...more
In remarks at the PLI Securities Regulation Institute yesterday, Corp Fin Deputy Director (Disclosure Operations) Shelley Parratt confirmed, as we all suspected, that it’s status quo on conflict minerals reporting again this...more
It’s Friday and time for another overview of developments in the field of business and human rights that we’ve been monitoring. This week’s post includes: the GAO’s latest report on the conflict minerals rule; a civil...more
The GAO has issued its annual conflict minerals report to Congress, entitled “Companies Face Continuing Challenges in Determining Whether Their Conflict Minerals Benefit Armed Groups.” The GAO is required to report annually...more
GAO noted in a recent report that as a result of country-of-origin inquiries, an estimated 19 percent more companies that filed Form SD with the SEC reported that they knew or had reason to believe they knew the source of the...more
Two consulting firms, Assent Compliance and Source Intelligence, have published their studies on conflict minerals (tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold) reporting for 2015, the third year of required SEC reporting. For 2015,...more
The SEC, along with the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the National Credit Union Administration, proposed a joint...more
The "DRC Conflict Undeterminable" determination, widely employed in conflict minerals reports to date, will not be permitted for issuers (other than small companies) reporting in 2016 on activities in calendar year 2015. At...more
A new study on conflict minerals compliance from Tulane University and Assent Compliance, a compliance software and services firm, revealed that, about 90% of filers of conflict minerals reports indicated that they were...more
An early review of conflict minerals filings for the 2014 reporting period shows improvement in “detail, clarity and quality,” according to this article in BNA. As reported by Elm Sustainability Partners, a conflict minerals...more
Conflict minerals disclosures on Forms SD for calendar year 2014, if required, must be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by June 1, 2015 — the Monday after the annual May 31 due date. As companies...more