Holding Foreign Insiders Accountable Act

The Holding Foreign Insiders Accountable Act would expand U.S. insider disclosure rules to cover the directors, officers, and principal stockholders of foreign private issuers. Specifically, it amends Section 16(a)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to include securities of foreign private issuers within the scope of insider reporting, using the federal regulation definition of “foreign private issuer” (as defined in 17 CFR 240.3b-4). The bill also requires the SEC to issue final regulations (or amend existing ones) to implement this change within 90 days of enactment, and it stiffens the regulatory framework by declaring that any inconsistent regulatory provision (specifically, provisions under 17 CFR 240.3a12-3(b)) shall have no force. The sponsors are Senate colleagues Kennedy and Van Hollen, and the bill has been introduced in the Senate. In essence, the bill brings foreign private issuer securities under the same insider-disclosure framework that already applies to U.S. issuers, aiming to increase transparency and oversight of insider holdings and movements in foreign-based issuers with U.S. market activity.