The SEC is issuing new interpretation and guidance concerning proxy rules which were promulgated by Section 14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This new guidance is the result of the SEC examining proxy voting advice provided by proxy advisory firms as possible solicitations under the federal proxy laws. In addition, the SEC has considered public comments on a variety of issues related to the proxy voting process, from numerous public concept releases to a 2018 Roundtable that invited the public to provide feedback on the use of proxy advisory firms and their activities.

The SEC announced the first fee rate advisory for 2020 on August 23, which will take effect on October 1, 2019. Under this new rate, the fees that public companies and other issuers pay to register their securities with the SEC will be set at $129.80 per million dollars, an increase from $121.20 per million dollars.

On August 20th, the SEC staff released a group of Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (CD&Is) concerning the interactive data rules, including new interpretations regarding inline XBRL. This article contains a summary of the CD&Is, organized by topic groups as well as a list of the new questions and answers that were released on August 20th.

Version 5.0c of all applications in the GoFiler Suite has been released. This release contains a number improvements and corrections to Page View, iXBRL View, and XDX View, including improvements to the automatic cover page tagging for inline XBRL. Various EDGAR form improvements have also been made.

On August 8th, the SEC proposed amendments that would modernize some of the descriptions and disclosures that registrants are required to make pursuant to Regulation S-K. These changes should improve disclosures for investors and simplify compliance efforts for registrants.

The XBRL US Data Quality Committee (DQC US) has approved new validation rules to aid public companies in detecting inconsistencies and errors in their XBRL-formatted financial data. These rules identify potential problems, including incorrect negative values, improper relationships between elements, and incorrect data associated with certain data. The new rules, which are listed below, were approved after publication as a draft and with consideration of public comments.

Both GoFiler Complete and GoXBRL have the tools necessary to create EDGAR filings in Inline XBRL. The process is the same in both applications and involves adding XBRL financial data to an HTML document using a patented technology called XDX. With XDX, you can add XBRL information to different types of HTML blocks which is then processed by the software to create EDGAR compliant XBRL.

An interim release (version 5.0bc) of all applications in the GoFiler Suite has been released. This interim release contains a number of corrections and improvements to assist filers in creating inline XBRL documents as well as some changes to the handling of horizontal rules (HR rules) in Page View. Because this is an interim release that is not part of our regular updates, you will need to use the Updater.exe file within the application installation directory in order to update the software. Users who are working with inline XBRL are encouraged to download this release.

Version 5.0b of all applications in the GoFiler Suite has been released. This release contains a number of new features, including an XDX Setup and Cover Page Tagging wizard, new tools for managing and exploring Include-Text fields and a new function to toggle the visibility of XDX markers. Additionally, improvements were made to iXBRL to remove inline XBRL tagging and to highlight inline XBRL facts when proofing. Improvement to Page View and Form C were also made.

The SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee will hold a meeting on July 25 at 9 a.m. EST. This committee was established to advise the SEC on regulatory priorities and issues, including the regulation of securities products, trading strategies, fee structures, the effectiveness of disclosure, and initiatives to protect investor interests and promote investor confidence. Members of the committee represent a wide variety of investors, from individual and institutional investors to senior citizens and state securities commissions.

The SEC’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee will hold a meeting on August 13. This meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. CST (10:30 a.m. EST) and will be conducted at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. It is freely open to the public, but there is limited seating availability. In addition, the meeting will be webcast live on the SEC’s website and archived for later viewing. The full agenda for the meeting will be announced at a later date.

XBRL US has posted a helpful Q&A on the new Inline XBRL (iXBRL) Cover Page tagging requirements for SEC filings.

The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance will be hosting a roundtable on July 18th at the SEC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. This roundtable will allow investors, issuers, and other market participants to speak about the impact of short-termism on capital markets and whether the SEC’s reporting system (or other aspects of the SEC’s regulatory approaches) should be modified to address these concerns.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is revising its electronic filing format for particular data collections to make it easier for filers to submit information and for data analyzers to use that information. This new rule, which was passed June 20, 2019, will modernize FERC’s data collection, which will in turn increase efficiency in regulatory filings and business information processing while furthering transparency and over time decreasing costs in preparing the data for submission.