The SEC has recently re-proposed Rule 13q-1 and an amendment to EDGAR Form SD to require the disclosure of payments made to governments by resource extraction issuers. Rule 13q-1 was previously adopted by the SEC in August of 2012 but was vacated by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after being challenged by the American Petroleum Institute (“API”), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and two other industry groups. Recently, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued an order holding that the SEC unlawfully withheld agency action by not promulgating a final rule. Subsequently, the SEC filed an expedited schedule for promulgating the final rule, re-proposed Rule 13q-1 in SEC Release No 34-77620, and would vote on the adoption of a final rule in June 2016.

On December 14, 2015, EDGAR 15.4 was released by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release contained new EDGAR forms and changes to the EDGAR Filer Manual that detail how the SEC chooses to render XBRL reports.

With the release of EDGAR 15.4, filers will be able to file Part III of Form X-17A-5 electronically. Form X-17A-5 contains information required of broker-dealers pursuant to Section 17 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

With its recent adoption of Regulation Crowdfunding, the SEC has decided to propose changes to other exempt offerings in an effort to modernize them. Crowdfunding is poised to change the way that small businesses raise capital, and the SEC is seeking to increase the utility of existing rules and facilitate capital formation by smaller companies.

The SEC adopted a number of new regulations in 2015 and many of them have rules and new EDGAR forms that will become effective in 2016. In the first and second quarter of next year, expect a number of changes to EDGAR to accommodate these changes.