An SEC email address mix-up is causing confusion and threatening to disrupt its proposal to scrap quarterly reporting requirements

The lost art of proofreading could see a missing “s” disrupt the federal government’s controversial effort to reduce reporting requirements for public companies.

In May, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a new rule that would let publicly listed companies report their financial results twice a year instead of every quarter, as is currently required. The agency asked the public to weigh in and send its feedback to rule-comment@sec.gov. But the comment inbox that the SEC lists on its own instructions page—and has printed in almost every rule proposal it has issued since at least 2019—is rule-comments@sec.gov. With an “s.”

The comment (or…comments) period on the semiannual reporting rule closed on July 6, but the email address confusion cropped up on Monday in a letter to the commission from nonprofit investor advocate Better Markets. The letter, addressed to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, said the posted email address was “incorrect,” and said the error “undoubtedly deprived some members of the public of the opportunity to express their views on an extensive, far-rea...