The SEC last month published a concept release that is soliciting comments on the financial filing requirements stipulated in Regulation S-K. The release is part of the Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative through the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act and is aimed at modernizing and improving filing requirements, addressing whether the requirements continue to elicit the information investors need to make investment and voting decisions, what information should be required and how it should best be presented by registrants, and the costs and benefits of disclosure for both the companies filing them and the investors utilizing them. Additionally, the SEC is investigating alternative methods of presenting disclosure to the public that could improve readability and investor access to information.

On May 3, 2016, the SEC adopted a final rule that amends the thresholds for registration, termination of registration, and suspension of reporting under Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These rules implement provisions of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) and the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), and, with the adoption of these amendments, the SEC has implemented all of the mandates required by the JOBS Act.

On April 25, 2016, EDGAR 16.1 was released by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release contained new EDGAR forms for security-based swap dealers and broker-dealers and some minor changes to Form C, Form N-MFP1, and Exhibit EX-102 for Form ABS-EE.

As the deadline for the first Form N-MFP1 filing draws closer, it’s important to know what your options are for working with this new type of filing. As with Form N-MFP, the SEC is not providing any editing software so filers are essentially on their own to find a solution for creating and editing this form.

SEC staff recently released observations regarding registrants’ use of custom axis elements (or custom dimensions) in XBRL reports. The results of their analysis showed that while the overall use of custom axis elements has been declining since 2013, over half of all filers continue to use one or more custom axis elements in their annual reports.

On March 7, the Securities and Exchange Commission updated EDGAR to accept the US GAAP 2016 taxonomy among other new taxonomies. While this taxonomy should not be used for reports with a reporting period that ends before March 7, 2015, it’s a good idea to transition your SEC filings as soon as possible for reporting periods that end after March 7.

When the SEC moved their XBRL Viewer software to Python, the underlying architecture of the application changed significantly and now requires a bit more set up to get the software up and running. If you use GoFiler Complete or GoXBRL, our development team has integrated a script into our software to automatically install the XBRL Viewer for you. If you want to know how to install the XBRL Viewer on your own, read on.

The SEC’s changes to Form N-MFP will take effect on April 14, 2016. After this date, filers will need to submit new Form N-MFP1, which contains additional fields and has some other minor changes.

On February 9, 2016, SEC staff released a guide for issuers of Asset-Backed Securities to help issuers understand the procedures for using EDGAR. The guide answers questions about filing a 424H prospectus, filing Form ABS-15G, and filing other forms that may be an initial filing for an ABS issuing entity.

Congressman Kevin Cramer announced yesterday that the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1675, the Capital Markets Improvement Act of 2016. H.R. 1675 provides for various reforms related to financial services in an attempt to alleviate the burdens on employers (particularly small businesses) by repealing and/or amending outdated SEC regulations.

As Novaworks has released new versions our software throughout the years, our support team frequently are asked about the Office of Management and Budget (or “OMB”) date that appears on the proof for certain forms. This OMB information changes periodically, and, while it isn’t filed to EDGAR with your form data, it has raised questions from filers about what the OMB information is and why it doesn’t always appear up to date.

On January 25, 2016, EDGAR 16.0.1 was released by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release
contained new EDGAR forms and some minor updates to the specification for Form N-MFP1.

In December, the SEC proposed new rules that would allow registered investment companies, including mutual funds, and business development companies to engage in derivative transactions, provided such companies meet certain conditions. The increased growth and complexity of derivatives markets and the increased use of derivatives by certain funds has caused the SEC to review the current regulations for derivatives in the Investment Company Act.

The Section 16 EDGAR forms are fairly straightforward for filers and preparers, but sometimes you can run into something a little out of the ordinary and have questions about how to file it. We’ve compiled a list of the five most common questions our support team is asked about Section 16 to help you confidently prepare the more unusual Section 16 filings.

A new “end of life” upgrade notification will be delivered to Windows users by Microsoft on January 12, 2016. This upgrade notification will inform users that technical support and security updates for Internet Explorer will only be available for the most current version of Internet Explorer for each supported operating system.