The SEC Says It Will No Longer Consider Mandatory Arbitration Clauses Potential Roadblocks to Acceleration of Effectiveness of Registration Statements
By Andrew L. Franklin
Alternative Dispute Resolution,
February 2026
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul S. Atkins is on a mission to “Make IPOs Great Again.” In an Open Meeting Statement regarding the Policy Statement, Chairman Atkins acknowledged, “[t]he agency has, however, scrutinized registration statements filed by companies that have sought to include a mandatory arbitration provision in their governance documents—and injected uncertainty into whether these registration statements would be declared effective.” The September 2025 Policy Statement upends the SEC’s prior skepticism of mandatory arbitration provisions. The primary rationale for the policy shift is aligning SEC practices with recent Supreme Court case law.
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