Dodd-Frank Not Just About Banks: Conflict Mineral Reporting Requirements will Affect Chipmakers, Other Electronics Firms

Jan 18, 2011

Since its passage in July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act has gotten a lot of attention, mostly for its sweeping new regulations affecting the financial industry. But buried in all those pages, in Section 1502 to be exact, is also a small provision aimed at addressing the problem of conflict minerals originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Along with requiring the US Secretary of State to develop a strategy to address the issue, Dodd-Frank requires companies under the jurisdiction of the SEC to report annually on whether they are using minerals from the DRC or its nine immediate neighbors. All companies must also report on the due diligence they have undertaken to verify their supply chain and avoid tainted metals. The SEC has until April 2011 to develop regulations to carry out this mandate. In December 2010, MSCI ESG Research published an Industry Report on makers of semiconductors and related equipment. Along with other key ESG metrics, we looked at how the 34 firms in this space managed their supply chains. Our analysis included, in the wake of Dodd-Frank, an assessment of company efforts to keep conflict minerals out of their products. We found a wide variation in supply chain-related ESG risk exposure between leaders and laggards; click here to get access to the full report.