Two oil company executives are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to act quickly on re-proposing a rule that, sent back to it after a successful legal challenge, would have required energy and mining companies to disclose payments made to government officials around the world. Consider it a matter of “hurry up and wait,” however, because a goal is slowing the rapid pace of similar regulations in the European Union.

In a letter to SEC Chairman Mary Jo White, Simon Henry, chief financial officer, for Royal Dutch Shell, and Patrick Mulva, vice president and controller for Exxon Mobil, explained that their industry – which aggressively fought the Dodd-Frank Act rule – is now concerned that the Commission may have put take two of the rule on the back-burner. The problem, they write, is that a similar requirement is percolating in Europe, notably in the UK. “We believe that the UK timetable is material to U.S. consideration of this issue,” they wrote, adding that this “increases the urgency” for the SEC to re-propose its rule in 2014.

The Dodd-Frank Act requires oil, gas, and mining companies to report aggregated project payments, exceeding $100,000, made to U.S. and foreign governments for natural resource extraction. The SEC issued a final rule on the disclosure mandate in August 2012. API, partnering with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sued to block implementation. In July 2013, Judge John Bates of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia vacated the rule and remanded it back to the Commission. Bates sided with the plaintiffs in their call to invalidate the rulemaking on the grounds that the SEC “misread the statute to mandate public disclosure of the reports," and its decision to deny any exemption was, "arbitrary and capricious.” He dismissed the SEC's defense that Congress unambiguously required public disclosure.

In May 2013, the EU reached an agreement that would require companies in extraction businesses to disclose in their annual reports payments totaling more than €100,000 ($131,000) they have made to governments on a country-by-country and project-by-project basis. The EU Accounting & Transparency Directives must be implemented by legislation adopted individually in each EU member state by June 2015. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has publicly committed the U.K. to be the first member state to implement the directives. Draft legislation is already out for public comment with a goal of final adoption by October 2014.

“If the SEC were able to indicate their willingness to consider the proposed new rules before the U.K. legislation is finalized, the U.K. government could take the SEC approach into account in implementing its own transparency legislation,” the two executives wrote. Because the U.K. will likely set a precedent for other member states' implementation, “equivalency between the EU and U.S. reporting regimes” is both important and more likely.

“No one benefits from an outcome under which multinational resource companies are required to file multiple reports in multiple jurisdictions providing substantially the same information in different forms,” the executives told White. “On the other hand, we believe all stakeholders would benefit from seeing the direction of SEC rulemaking as transparency reporting is implemented around the world. An ideal solution to the issue might be that compliance with the reporting rules in one country would be deemed to satisfy the reporting requirements in another country notwithstanding variations in detail.”

Lest one think the ultimate goal is to speed global rules, the letter suggests that rapid SEC action could actually slow the full-steam-ahead approach of European legislators.

“If the SEC were to take concrete steps to indicate it will take up the rulemaking this year, the U.K. government might be willing to defer implementation of its transparency legislation from the October 2014 schedule to the April 2015 time frame,” the executives wrote. “This would provide sufficient time for the SEC to discuss with the U.K. implementing authority, and how best to take into account the SEC rules before any EU member state finalizes its transparency legislation.”

“The fast-track schedule being pursued in the U.K., increase the urgency of our industry's request for the Commission to consider [its rulemaking] in 2014 and to work towards publishing proposed rules as soon as possible, and in any event before year-end,” they urge White.