Fergie's Tech Blog

SEC Suspends 'Terrorist' Watch List Web Tool

Karey Wutkowski writes for Reuters:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday suspended its online search tool to help investors identify companies active in "sponsors of terrorism" countries after lawmakers and business groups criticized the site as unfair to some companies.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said the agency would revamp the Web site tool so it would more accurately reflect a company's activities in the countries.

The site generated "exceptional public interest" with more than 150,000 hits from June 25 to July 16, and the SEC received both positive and negative comments about it, Cox said in a statement.

Before the tool was removed from the SEC Web site, it could be used to search for companies whose annual reports contained references to business related to Sudan, Syria, North Korea, Iran and Cuba. The countries are designated as "state sponsors of terrorism" by the U.S. State Department.

posted by Fergie @ 7/20/2007 06:55:00 PM