The Impact of the Financial Reform Bill on Extractive Industries

One of the biggest implications of the recntly-passed Financial Reform Bill will be the requirement that all U.S. publicly-traded companies disclose tax and royalty payments to foreign governments.  This new mandate follows several years of lobbying by human rights groups and adds additional momentum to the Publish What You Pay and Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) movements.

Newsweek has a new piece exploring how the new requirements might impact technology companies like Apple and HP whose parts suppliers rely on source material from conflict-prone countries in emerging and frontier markets such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  Foglamp continues to hear plenty of buzz around investment opportunities in the mining sector in DRC, and it will be interesting to see whether the new U.S. regulations will have any material impact on investors’ view of that market.