Originally published in International Financial Law Review on May 10, 2012

A casual observer considering the prevailing attitudes in the US over the last few years toward foreign issuers might have sensed heightened concern on the part of US regulators.

In fact, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has been criticised by legislators for not having imposed additional safeguards to prevent foreign issuers from accessing the US capital markets through reverse mergers and not having scrutinised more carefully the filings of certain Asian-based issuers later found to have deficient disclosures.