U.S. SEC says will continue to carefully review China IPO prospectuses

(Corrects spelling error in headline)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. securities regulator will continue to carefully review issuer filings, it said on Wednesday in response to a Reuters report that Chinese offshore issuers are toning down China-related business risks in their listing documents.

“Any issuer who chooses to access the U.S. capital markets must comply with our federal securities laws and regulations,” a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters on Wednesday.

“Our staff will continue its long-standing practice of carefully reviewing issuer filings and commenting to the issuer when appropriate.”

China’s securities regulator last month asked domestic law firms to refrain from including negative descriptions of China’s policies or its business and legal environment in initial public offering prospectuses, Reuters previously reported. China law firms are now scrambling to comply with that guidance.

In response to the Reuters Tuesday report, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, urged SEC chair Gary Gensler to “take action to protect American retirees and investors from these deceptive Chinese firms.”