President Donald Trump has reignited debate over corporate earnings disclosure, calling for U.S. publicly traded companies to report results every six months rather than quarterly. He argued on Monday that a longer reporting cycle would “save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies.”

Quarterly earnings reporting has been a regulatory requirement since 1970, when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) introduced it to improve transparency and reduce information asymmetry between companies and investors. Before that, companies reported only semiannually. The SEC’s move followed decades of reforms aimed at preventing the kind of financial market instability seen in the 1929 stock market crash.

Trump first promoted the six-month schedule in 2018, citing discussions with “some of the world’s top business leaders,” but no regulatory change followed. On Wall Street, reactions remain mixed. TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg assigns a 60 percent probability that the SEC could implement a six-month reporting requirement. At the same time, other market participants caution that less frequent disclosures could reduce transparency and increase stock price volatility.

Industry voices are similarly divided. The Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE), which advocates long-term corporate performance, supports the proposal. In contrast, groups like the CFA Institute warn that quarterly reports help investors align stock returns with future earnings and make informed decisions.

Globally, several markets have already moved away from quarterly reporting. The European Union abolished mandatory quarterly disclosures in 2013, and the United Kingdom followed suit in 2014, aiming to reduce pressure on companies to meet short-term expectations and encourage long-term planning.

Analysts note that any shift in the U.S. system would have broad implications for investor behavior, corporate governance, and market volatility, given the entrenched role quarterly reporting plays in informing investment decisions.