The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance and the Office of the Chief Accountant will host a meeting via webcast on sec.gov to discuss and consider whether to propose amendments that would enhance and standardize climate-related disclosures for investors. The meeting is free, open for the public to attend, and will take place on Monday, March 21, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. ET. {expires: 2022-03-22} Continue reading "SEC Staff to Hold Meeting to Discuss Proposing..." »

On March 3rd, the SEC announced that it is requesting feedback on interactive data collection. Issuers filing registration statements under the Securities Act of 1933 and reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are required to submit specified financial information to the SEC and post it on their corporate websites in an interactive data format using XBRL. The interactive data requirement is designed to simplify investors’ ability to evaluate financial information and to help issuers automate regulatory filings and business information processing. The SEC is seeking feedback on the burden of these requirements, as well as the quality of the interactive data itself. Continue reading "SEC Extends Interactive Data Rule, Seeks Comment" »

The SEC has announced that it is proposing new Rule 13f-2 and related Form SHO pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Section 13(f)(2) of the Exchange Act was added by Section 929X of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These changes would provide greater transparency to investors and regulators through increasing the public availability of short sale related data by requiring certain institutional investment managers to report short sale related information. The SEC then would release aggregate data about large short positions, including daily short sale activity data, to the public for each individual security. Continue reading "SEC Announces Proposed Short Sale Disclosure..." »

On February 10th, the SEC announced that it is proposing amendments to Rules 21F-3 and 21F-6 of the Exchange Act of 1934, which governs the SEC’s whistleblower program. Under the Exchange Act, monetary awards are issued to eligible whistleblowers who voluntarily report original information pertaining to a securities law violation that leads to the SEC’s success in obtaining a monetary order greater than one million dollars in a covered judicial or administrative action brought by the SEC. The valuable tips provided to the SEC help the agency fight wrongdoing and better protect investors and the marketplace. Continue reading "SEC Proposes Reforms to Two Whistleblower..." »

On March 9th, the SEC announced that it is proposing rules designed to improve and allow for more timely standardized disclosures regarding cybersecurity risk management, strategy, governance, and the reporting of cybersecurity incidents by public companies that must comply with the reporting requirements under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Increased cybersecurity disclosures would provide investors with information needed to consider which risks to take. Continue reading "SEC Proposes Rules to Increase Transparency..." »

On February 9th, the SEC announced that it is proposing new rules and amendments under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Investment Company Act of 1940 that are intended to both improve cybersecurity readiness and bolster investor confidence in the resilience of investment advisers and investment companies against threats and attacks to cybersecurity. Continue reading "SEC Announces Proposed Cybersecurity Risk..." »

On February 9th, the SEC announced that it is proposing new rules and amendments intended to protect investors by reducing risks in the clearance and settlement of securities. The revisions would increase operational efficacy by shortening time between the execution of securities transaction and its settlement. The proposed rule would decrease the standard settlement cycle for the majority of broker-dealer transactions from two business days after the trade date (“T+2”) to one business day after the trade date (“T+1”).

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On February 9th, the SEC announced that it is proposing new rules and amendments under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (Advisers Act) to improve the oversight of private funds and their advisers in the $18-trillion marketplace.

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The SEC announced on February 9th that it is proposing to amend certain rules that govern beneficial ownership reporting under Exchange Act Sections 13(d) and 13(g). The rules would enhance disclosure requirements, reduce information imbalances and provide more timely information to meet the needs of investors and the market.

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The EDGAR Business Office (EBO) has announced that on March 1, 2022, it will temporarily suspend the use of the EDGAR beta environment (EDGAR Beta) for testing of EDGAR Next code and to deploy code for other testing purposes. At a future date, the EBO will announce the re-deployment of EDGAR Next code in EDGAR Beta to allow filers to test possible future EDGAR Next technical changes.

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The SEC has reopened the comment period on 2015 proposed rules under the Dodd-Frank Act (Act) requiring disclosure of information that reflects the relationship between the actual executive compensation paid by a company and the company's financial performance. The SEC is assessing whether additional performance measures might better reflect the Congressional objectives detailed in the Act. This is especially significant considering the value of and the need for dispensing information regarding executive compensation to investors. Should the proposed rule be adopted, it would improve the quality of executive compensation disclosure practices and provide shareholders with information needed to evaluate a company’s executive compensation policies.

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The SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) has observed that some filers are not appropriately tagging disclosures about their finance lease liability, undiscounted future lease payments, and the excess amount of the undiscounted future lease payments over the finance lease liability (for example, imputed interest). DERA is providing guidance to filers to address some of this mistakes. Continue reading "SEC Provides Guidance Regarding Proper Tagging..." »

The SEC has announced that on or about April 4th, it will introduce a change to the EDGAR filing websites (EDGAR Link Online and Online Forms) that will affect the way certain third-party software may communicate with these websites. EDGAR will develop a unique parameter that some third-party software products may need to include in each request that enters/updates data. EDGAR will both verify the existence and validity of the parameter in filers’ requests and end user sessions if the value of the parameter is missing or mismatched. Continue reading "SEC Advises on Filing Agent/Filer Software..." »