If you can’t get insurance against terrorist attacks because your insurer won’t offer cover and your government doesn’t seem interested in making it possible, does that make your company a bigger risk for investors? Probably, says the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Its Chairman, Harvey Pitt, has put the matter on the SEC’s agenda. According to reports from New York, the absence of terrorism insurance might have to be disclosed to investors as a “material risk”.

No final decision has been made, but the SEC is contemplating the possibility of framing some regulation or at the least issuing some formal accounting advice. There is general agreement that a meaningful terrorism cover isn’t possible without the Federal Government sharing the risk with insurers. But the politicians in Washington have been unable to agree on a measure that would meet all their various positions.