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.

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.

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.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton announced that the SEC will hold two events for Main Street investors in Boston on Monday, July 8th. The first event is a roundtable hosted by Chairman Clayton with Main Street Investors that will focus on the SEC’s ongoing investor education efforts. The roundtable will explore issues relevant to Main Street investors, such as understanding important differences between investment advisers and broker-dealers. Other senior SEC staff will join the event.

On June 18th, the SEC adopted changes to the auditor independence rules with respect to the mandated analysis to determine if an auditor is independent when said auditor has a lending relationship with shareholders of an audit client. These changes were prompted by situations where existing rules capture relationships that otherwise do not bear on the impartiality and/or objectivity of the auditor. The amendments are designed to refine these rules to better focus on lending relationships that may reasonably influence an external auditor’s impartiality/objectivity. In doing so, the changes should improve the application of the Loan Provision to the benefit of investors while reducing compliance burdens.

The SEC has requested public comment on way to simplify and improve the exempt offering framework with the goal of expanding investment opportunities and promoting capital formation while maintaining appropriate investor protections. The Concept Release on Harmonization of Securities Offering Exemptions reviews the framework for exempt offerings, including several exemptions from registration under the Securities Act of 1933 that facilitate capital raising.