ASA Submits Testimony to Financial Services Committee on CCP Economic Threat

ASA welcomes the Committee's early prioritization of this important issue.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the American Securities Association (ASA) submitted written testimony for the record in advance of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee hearing on “Combatting the Economic Threat from China.”

“We applaud the bipartisan efforts of this committee to review and address the economic and national security threats the Chinese Communist Party poses to investors and our capital markets,” ASA CEO Chris Iacovella said. “ASA has been a leading voice and advocate when it comes to protecting investors from CCP-controlled companies that are rife with fraud. We strongly supported the passage of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA) and Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (AHFCAA) to ensure companies that don’t comply with U.S. laws cannot access American capital.”

Since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its intentions with the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), ASA has consistently called on the agency to remove retail investor PII from the CAT and filed a legal challenge against the agency to protect America’s retail investors from identity theft and safeguard their right to privacy. ASA welcomed the SEC’s order in July of 2022 granting temporary exemptive relief from certain requirements of the CAT effectively delaying implementation until 2024.

“ASA has repeatedly called on the SEC to remove the collection of investors PII from the CAT to protect them from the state-sponsored espionage China continues to execute on the U.S. and our allies. We thank Chairman McHenry and Ranking Member Waters for holding today’s hearing and urge Congress to continue its oversight of the SEC and PCAOB and to ensure they carry out the HFCAA and AHFCAA as intended to prevent further investor harm at the hands of the CCP,” Iacovella said.

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