On September 14th, the SEC presented a report to Congress regarding the 39th Annual Small Business Forum that was hosted by the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation on June 18th, 2020. This inclusive, special event brought together members of the public and private sectors, including entrepreneurs, investors, and market participants from across the country, to propose suggestions for policy affecting companies on the rise and their investors. These companies range from startups to smaller, publicly traded companies.
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Version 5.5a of all applications in the GoFiler Suite has been released. This release corresponds to EDGAR 20.3 and contains new form types as specified by EDGAR 20.3. Additionally, this release contains support for the new redlining format for inline XBRL documents and other EDGAR 20.3 changes. Improvements and corrections have been made to the HTML to XHTML function, to HTML validation, to XDX for Risk Return, and to various other functions.

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On September 21, 2020, EDGAR Release 20.3 was released by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release includes new submission types for variable contracts and new exhibits for Forms N-3, N-4, and N-6. EDGAR will now also allow filers to redline changed content in inline XBRL submissions.

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With the release of EDGAR 20.3, changes will be made to the way in which filers can redline revisions in their submissions to the EDGAR system. These changes allow for revisions within Inline XBRL. Existing revision tags have historically been placed loosely around text that has been altered to indicate the revision. In addition, broken character entities, &ltR&gt and &lt/R&gt, could be used in place of tags. Neither of these methods are acceptable for Inline XBRL filings since they both violate that format’s rigid XHTML requirements.

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On September 1, 2020, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the organization responsible for the ongoing development and maintenance of the SEC Reporting Taxonomy (SRT), announced proposed technical enhancements for the 2021 SEC Reporting Taxonomy. The planned improvements were published in a set of release notes that describe the proposed upgrades, which were designed to improve the overall functionality of the SRT. Continue reading "FASB Holds Public Review for Tech Enhancements..." »

On September 11th, the SEC issued the agenda for the September 16th meeting of the Asset Management Advisory Committee (AMAC). This committee was formed to provide the SEC with diverse perspectives on asset management as well related policy recommendations. The upcoming meeting will include a discussion of matters in the asset management industry, specifically issues concerning the ESG and Private Investments Subcommittees and improving diversity and inclusion. In addition, the meeting will feature a follow-up discussion on COVID-19 matters related to the May 27th AMAC meeting.
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On August 21st, 2020, the SEC voted to propose revisions to the National Market System Plan overseeing the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT NMS Plan) to reinforce the Consolidated Audit Trail’s (CAT) data security. Although the CAT NMS Plan currently has a number of requirements in place regarding the security and privacy of CAT data, the proposed modifications to the CAT NMS Plan are the latest SEC action to limit the scope of sensitive data required to be gathered by CAT. Continue reading "SEC Plans Boost to Data Security for the CAT..." »

The SEC will be closed Monday, September 7th in observance of Labor Day. The EDGAR System will not receive, process or accept filings on this day. Filings with a due date of September 7 will be due the following business day.
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The SEC has announced that it will hold a virtual public meeting of its Investor Advisory Committee on September 24, 2020. The meeting is open to the public via live webcast from 10 am to 4 pm EDT and will be archived for later viewing on the SEC’s website. Continue reading "SEC Investor Advisory Committee to Hold Public..." »

On August 31st, the SEC revised its list of unregistered entities using misleading data to solicit primarily non-US investors. Twenty-three soliciting entities, eight impersonators of legitimate securities firms, and seven phony regulators have been added to the the Public Alert: Unregistered Soliciting Entities (PAUSE) list.
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On August 26th, the SEC announced that it has adopted amendments to update the description of business (Item 101), legal proceedings (Item 103), and risk factor disclosures (Item 105) that registrants are required to make in accordance with Regulation S-K. The amendments modernize these items to reflect the many changes in US capital markets and the domestic and global economy in recent decades. Before the adoption of these new rule amendments, there had not been significant revisions to these disclosure requirements in over 30 years. Continue reading "SEC Modernizes Disclosures of Business, Legal..." »

On August 26th, the SEC adopted amendments to the “accredited investor” definition. This definition is one of the primary criteria for determining which entities and investing professionals are eligible to participate in private capital markets. Traditionally, individual investors who do not meet specific income or net worth qualifications have been denied the chance to invest in complex and vast private markets, regardless of their financial sophistication. The amendments update and improve the definition to recognize more effectively institutional and individual investors that have the knowledge and expertise to participate in those markets.
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On August 26th, the SEC announced the first fee rate advisory for the fiscal year 2021, which will go into effect on October 1, 2020. Under this new rate, the fees that public companies and other issuers pay to register their securities with the SEC will be set at $109.10 per million dollars, a drop from $129.80 per million dollars. Continue reading "First Fee Rate Advisory for Fiscal Year 2021" »

On August 26th, the SEC announced that it will be carefully monitoring the effects of Hurricane Laura on investors and capital markets. As the SEC tracks the storm’s developments, it will consider easing regulatory requirements and extending filing deadlines for those affected by the storm.
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On August 19th, the SEC voted to overturn a rule exception that allowed a proposed national market system (NMS) plan fee amendment to become effective upon filing before review and comment by investors and other market participants. The fee exception contained in Rule 608(b)(3)(1) of Regulation NMS allowed a fee amendment to become effective immediately upon filing with the SEC, and an NMS plan could start charging the new fee before an opportunity for public comment and without SEC action. Also, Rule 608 did not include specific timelines for public notice and SEC action on NMS plan proposals. Continue reading "SEC Issues New Ruling to Ensure Public Notice,..." »