On March 20th, the SEC adopted amendments to modernize and simplify disclosure requirements in Regulation S-K for public companies, investment advisers, and investment companies. Like previous amendments, these changes are consistent with the SEC’s mandate under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act and are based on recommendations in the staff’s FAST Act Report and a broader review of the SEC’s disclosure rules. These changes are expected to benefit investors through eliminating outdated and unnecessary disclosure while improving the readability and navigability of company disclosures. They should also reduce repetition and the disclosure of irrelevant and immaterial information. In addition, these amendments are expected to reduce costs and burdens on registrants.

The SEC will hold a public forum discussing distributed ledger technology (DLT) and digital assets on May 31st, 2019. The Commission’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub) is organizing the forum, which was announced as part of the launch of FinHub last year. FinHub’s mission concerns maintaining active engagement with market participants about emerging financial technologies. As the second such meeting hosted by FinHub, the forum will focus on fostering greater communication and understanding around issues involving DLT and digital assets. It will feature panelists from industry and academia who will explore topics like initial coin offerings, digital asset platforms, DLT innovations, and the impact these technologies have on markets and investors.

With the last EDGAR release, the Securities and Exchange Commission updated EDGAR to accept the US GAAP 2019 taxonomy among other new taxonomies. It’s always a good practice to transition your SEC filings as soon as possible when the SEC accepts the new taxonomy year.

The SEC announced a second fee rate advisory for 2019 on March 12 which will take effect on April 16, 2019. Under this new rate, the fees applicable to most securities transactions will be set at $20.70 per million shares. Accordingly, each SRO will continue to pay the SEC a rate $13.00 per million for covered sales occurring on charge dates through April 15, 2019. That rate will increase as specified to the new rate on charge dates on or after April 16, 2019. This rate is commensurate with rates published prior to 2018. As noted in the last advisory, 2018 saw a lower fee rate as a result of a substantially higher dollar amount of covered sales.

Version 4.26a of all applications in the GoFiler Suite has been released. This release corresponds to EDGAR Release 19.1 and contains a number of improvements to Form N-CEN View, general EDGAR forms, and XBRL. Additionally, this version contains support for the US GAAP 2019 taxonomy.

On March 11, 2019, EDGAR Release 19.1 was released by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release contains expanded support for Inline XBRL, support for the 2019 taxonomies and changes to a number of EDGAR XML forms, including ABS-EE, the Regulation A forms, Form MA, Form N-CEN and the N-PORT forms.

On February 19th, the SEC proposed an expansion of the popular modernization reform that permits investor opinions about potential offerings to be taken into account at an earlier stage in the public offering process than is the case today. The new rule and related changes would expand the “test-the-waters” accommodation, which is currently only available to emerging growth companies (EGCs). The expansion would permit all prospective issuers to gauge market interest in a possible initial public offering or other proposed registered securities offering by discussing the offering with potential investors prior to the filing of the offering’s registration statement.

Version 4.25d of all applications in the GoFiler Suite has been released. This release contains a number of improvements to Form N-CEN View, general EDGAR forms, the Export XBRL to Excel function and to XDX and iXBRL. Additionally, improvements were made to the Virtual File Cloud browser feature, which can now be enabled via the application preferences.

On February 14th, the SEC extended the comment period on proposed rulemaking concerning variable annuities and variable life insurance contracts. These proposed rules and form changes, which were originally published in the Federal Register on November 30, 2018, help investors make informed investment decisions regarding these contracts. The SEC has received numerous requests for additional time from the public and believes such time will allow the public to thoroughly consider the proposals and provide useful feedback that can guide the SEC in its decision process.

To aid filers avoid missing deadlines and reduce congestion around busy important filing dates, the SEC provides an anticipated peak filing schedule. Peak EDGAR filing times are estimated using historical data. The 2019 schedule is now available from the SEC.

Version 4.25c of all applications in the GoFiler Suite has been released. This release contains a number of improvements to Form N-CEN View, Form SDR View and Form ABS-EE View. Additionally, improvements and corrections were made to Page View and to general file recovery across all software platforms.

On Friday, President Trump signed a bill to reopen the federal government for three weeks until February 15. As of Monday, January 28, the SEC is currently open and fully staffed with a return to normal operations. During the transition to normal operations, staff response times may be longer than ordinary. Certain SEC Divisions and Offices, including our Divisions of Corporation Finance, Trading and Markets, Investment Management and the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, will be publishing statements regarding their transition plans at www.sec.gov in the upcoming days.

The SEC will be closed Monday, January 21 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The EDGAR System will not receive, process or accept filings on this day. Filings with a due date of January 21 will be due the following business day.

On January 15th, the SEC announced charges against nine defendants for participation in a previously disclosed scheme to hack into the EDGAR system for the purposes of illegal trading. Included in the defendants were a Ukranian hacker and six individual traders in California, Ukraine, and Russia. There were also two entities charged. The hacker and some of the traders were involved in a similar scheme to hack into newswire services to trade on information not yet publicly available. As a result of those activities, the hacker and his conspirators were charged in 2015.