The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Wall Street's top cop wants to loosen the rules for public companies. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that in his first major address since becoming chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year, Jay Clayton laid out his regulatory philosophy for how he plans to run the agency. In the speech, delivered in New York, Mr. Clayton offered few details, but his comments broadly called for efforts to scale back corporate disclosures, reduce compliance burdens on smaller companies, bolster the enforcement division's focus on protecting retail investors from run-of-the-mill frauds, and take better care to retrospectively review SEC rules to ensure they are having the desired effect. Such efforts would be in line with steps the SEC took late last month, when it moved to allow all public companies to file paperwork confidentially for initial public offerings. Mr. Clayton's comments on Wednesday are likely to be seen as welcome news to corporate lobbying groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has long criticized an array of SEC disclosure rules for cluttering up corporate filings with unnecessary information.