On September 6th, the SEC voted to approve an amendment to the National Market System Plan (NMS Plan) that regulates the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) (CAT NMS Plan). The amendment introduces an updated funding model (Executed Share Model) for the CAT and establishes a fee schedule for CAT fees for the self-regulatory organizations that are participants to the CAT NMS Plan under the Executed Share Model. Continue reading "SEC Adopts Funding Amendment to National Market..." »

The SEC has recently voted to reopen the comment period for its February 2023 proposal, Safeguarding Advisory Client Assets, which proposed a new rule under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 that would redesignate and update the current custody rule to improve protections of customer assets managed by registered investment advisers. In compliance with the audit provision of the current custody rule, the adoption of the private fund adviser audit rule generally requires a registered investment adviser to obtain an annual financial statement audit of each private fund it advises. Reopening the comment period provides interested parties with additional time to review the proposed amendments to the current custody rule’s audit provision under the private fund adviser audit rule. The rule initially was proposed by the SEC on February 15, 2023 with a comment period that ended on May 8, 2023. Continue reading "SEC Reopens Comment Period for Proposed..." »

On September 1st, the SEC released an order that directs the equity exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) (the participants) to file a new national market system plan (NMS plans). The order would replace the three current NMS plans that regulate the public dissemination of real-time, consolidated equity market data for national market system stocks. Continue reading "SEC Directs Equity Exchanges and FINRA to..." »

The SEC staff has announced the upcoming EDGAR Filing Fee Beta, which will be open from October 2, 2023 through December 22, 2023. All filers (including accelerated filers) are invited to participate in this Beta, which will allow filers to test the technical and structured data features of the Filing Fee Disclosure and Payment Methods Modernization rule. The Filing Fee Beta environment also will give filers the opportunity to construct structured filing fee-related information using the new Fee Exhibit Preparation Tool that includes features including prompts, explanations, and automated calculations to produce a filing fee exhibit (EX-Filing Fees) in submission-ready format. Continue reading "SEC Provides Filers Opportunity to Participate..." »

The SEC will be closed Monday, September 4th 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 4th will be due the following business day. The FERC will also be closed in observation of Labor Day. eForms will accept filings submitted on September 4th. {expires: 2023-09-05} Continue reading "Labor Day" »

The SEC has released its draft of the EDGAR® Filer Manual, Volume II: “EDGAR Filing” (Version 67) to allow filer feedback and to help filers prepare for potential updates to the EDGAR system which is detailed in the draft and scheduled to be implemented in EDGAR Release 23.3 on September 18, 2023. Continue reading "SEC Publishes Current Draft for EDGAR Filer..." »

The SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets staff will hold an open meeting via webcast on sec.gov on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. ET concerning the CAT NMS Plan. The meeting is free and open for the public to attend. {expires: 2023-09-07} Continue reading "SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets to Hold..." »

On August 25th, the SEC announced that the fees that public companies and other issuers pay to register their securities with the SEC will be $147.60, an increase from $110.20 per million dollars in the previous fee rate advisory. The change in the fee rate will be effective October 1. Continue reading "SEC Issues First Fee Rate Advisory for Fiscal..." »

On August 23rd, the SEC announced that it is adopting rule amendments to an exemption from Section 15(b)(8) of the Exchange Act. Under Section 15(b)(8), a broker or dealer registered with the SEC must join a national securities association unless the broker or dealer makes transactions in securities specifically on an exchange of which it is a member. Presently, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is the only registered association. The SEC initially proposed these amendments in March 2015 and subsequently re-proposed the amendments in July 2022. Continue reading "SEC Amends Rules Regarding Exemption From..." »

On July 12, Novaworks hosted a helpful virtual seminar to show filers in the utilities and energy industries a simple and cost-effective way to prepare and submit Form 6Q to the FERC in the required XBRL format. This webinar is now available to view on YouTube.com. Continue reading "Novaworks’ Webinar on Filing Form 6Q to the..." »

SEC staff will hold an open meeting via webcast on sec.gov on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. EDT. The meeting will focus on private fund and investment advisor compliance, is free, and open for the public to attend. {expires: 2023-08-24} Continue reading "SEC’s Division of Investment Management and..." »

The SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) has announced that it has concluded its assessment of the way filers are tagging write-offs for their credit quality indicator disclosures in their Form 10-K and their allowance for credit loss. The assessment was conducted only on those filers that have financing receivables and follow Accounting Standards Codification (ASC), Financial Instruments—Credit Losses (Topic 326): Troubled Debt Restructurings and Vintage Disclosures, a set of accounting standards that modernized the way entities measure credit losses on financial instruments published by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in March 2022. Continue reading "SEC Issues Findings on Tagging Allowance for..." »

On July 31st, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) released a proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) that would require public companies to provide disclosures in financial statements about that company’s expenses that would help investors make informed decisions concerning investments. Investors benefit greatly by understanding a company’s performance, assessing a company’s prospects for future cash flows, and having the ability both to observe a company’s performance over time and to compare with that of other companies. Continue reading "FASB Issues Proposed ASU to Enhance Income..." »

The SEC is proposing new rule amendments under Section 203 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 to eliminate, or neutralize the effect of, certain conflicts of interest when broker-dealers or investment advisers (collectively known as “firms”) interact with investors using covered technology. Covered technology refers to a firm’s use of analytical, technological, or computational functions, algorithms, models, correlation matrices, or similar methods or processes that optimize for, predict, guide, forecast, or direct investment-related behaviors or outcomes of an investor. Continue reading "SEC Proposes Reforms to Mitigate Risks to..." »