On June 28, 2018, the SEC held an open meeting in which they presented several final, approved rules and new rule proposals. Taken together, these changes represent progress toward many of the Commission’s priorities.

On June 19, 2018, the SEC published a draft strategic plan that focuses on investors, innovation, and performance as top strategic goals in the coming years. This draft will guide the SEC’s policies and priorities through fiscal year 2022.

On May 31, 2018 the XBRL US Center for Data Quality has released the sixth set of rules to provide guidance and aid for issuers in identifying errors in their XBRL SEC filings. The Data Quality Committee rules aim to help filers limit mistakes and avoid data inconsistencies that can adversely affect analysis of reported financial information. The sixth release of rules includes guidance for issuers using either the US-GAAP or IFRS taxonomies.

On June 5, 2018, the SEC voted to improve the experience of investors who invest in mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and other investment funds by releasing the Investment Company Disclosure and Delivery Rulemaking Package. This package contains three separate but related releases that are part of a long-term project led by the Division of Investment Management to explore the modernization of the design, delivery, and content of fund disclosures.

On May 23, 2018, the SEC proposed new rules and amendments that would promote research on mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, registered closed-end funds, business development companies, and similar investment funds. These changes would reduce obstacles often encountered in providing research on investment funds by aligning the treatment of such reports with research on other public entities. The Congressional mandate of the Fair Access to Investment Act of 2017 (FAIR ACT) underlies the SEC’s actions in proposing these changes.

On May 1st, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement released answers to frequently asked questions concerning the Share Class Selection Disclosure (SCSD) Initiative. This initiative was announced earlier this year on February 12th with the goal of protecting advisory clients from undisclosed conflicts of interest and aid in returning money to those investors affected by previous undisclosed conflicts of interest.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a package of rulemakings and interpretations designed to enhance the quality and transparency of investors’ relationships with investment advisers and broker-dealers. These changes will also preserve access to a variety of types of advice relationships and investment products. Generally, the proposed regulations would enhance investor protection by applying consistent principles to investment advisers and broker-dealers that provide for clear disclosures, encouraging exercising due care, and addressing conflicts of interest.

On April 17, the SEC announced that the fee rates applicable to most securities transactions will be set at $13.00 per million dollars starting on May 22, 2018. The reduction in the fee rate is partly due to the higher dollar amount of covered sales in recent months.

With the last EDGAR release, the Securities and Exchange Commission updated EDGAR to accept the US GAAP 2018 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 Securities and Exchange Commission has begun accepting XBRL filings under the new 2018 US-GAAP Taxonomy. Four of the nine SEC-maintained XBRL taxonomies have been altered: the DEI, EXCH, RR,
and STPR taxonomies.

On April 3rd from 1:00 to 2:30 PM EST, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) will host a webinar covering 2018 GAAP and SEC taxonomy improvements. During the webinar, the FASB staff will demonstrate how to apply the new modeling using example disclosures and discuss the new 2018 SEC Reporting Taxonomy.

On March 14th, the SEC voted to propose new Rule 610T of Regulation NMS to conduct a Transaction Fee Pilot in National Market System (NMS) stocks. This pilot would subject stock exchange fee pricing (such as “maker-taker” fee-and-rebate pricing models) to new temporary restrictions across three test groups. It would also require the exchanges to prepare and publicly post data pertaining to the pilot study. According to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, the pilot is “...designed to generate data that will provide the Commission, market participants, and the public with information to facilitate an informed, data-driven discussion about transaction fees and rebates and their impact on order routing behavior, execution quality, and market quality in general.” The information gathered from this pilot study may elucidate the effects of transaction-based fees and rebates while allowing for an evaluation of any potential regulatory action, including possible changes to Rule 610(c) of Regulation NMS.

On March 14th, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed amendments to the public liquidity-related disclosure requirements as they apply to certain open-end investment management companies. These amendments would replace a pending requirement that funds publicly provide the aggregate liquidity classification profile of their portfolios quarterly on Form N-PORT.

On March 12, 2018, EDGAR Release 18.1 was released by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release introduces new form types SF-1MEF and 486BXT and contains various changes and corrections to other forms.