How much money has a publicly traded company borrowed? Good luck finding out. Many U.S. businesses fail to promptly disclose their borrowing as mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, making it harder for shareholders to scrutinize a business’s leverage, according to new research. A study conducted by researchers at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that publicly traded U.S. companies failed to promptly disclose 18% of loans between 2005 and 2017 in a Form 8-K with the SEC as required. Form 8-K is used to report material developments in companies’ finances between quarterly or annual reports. “This is pretty clear evidence that companies selectively comply with regulations to disclose” loans, says Judson Caskey, an associate professor of accounting at Anderson, who co-wrote the study. The researchers examined data from 13,628 loan agreements for 2,766 companies from the DealScan database between 2005 and 2017. DealScan collects loan information directly from borrowers and lenders as well as SEC filings.