On January 23rd, the SEC announced that it will host a conference that will focus on municipal securities, which are predominantly owned by Main Street investors and help finance important public projects, including schools, roads, and utilities. This conference, scheduled for March 10th, is entitled “Spotlight on Transparency: A Discussion of Secondary Market Municipal Securities Disclosure Practices”.
Continue reading "SEC to Hold Conference on Municipal Securities..." »Friday, January 31. 2020
SEC to Hold Conference on Municipal Securities Disclosure
Thursday, January 30. 2020
SEC Announces 2020 Examination Priorities
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) announced on January 7th its 2020 examination priorities. OCIE publishes its priorities on an annual basis to enhance the transparency of its examination program and to provide insights into its risk-based approach, including the areas it believes present potential risks to investors and the integrity of the US capital markets. Developing the annual examination priorities is a collaborative effort that begins with feedback from examination staff (who are uniquely positioned to identify the practices, products, services, and other factors that may pose risk to investors or markets) and other sources of input and advice from the SEC Chairman, other Commissioners, other SEC divisions and departments, and other federal financial regulatory agencies.
Continue reading "SEC Announces 2020 Examination Priorities" »Monday, January 27. 2020
New Release (5.2a) for the GoFiler Family of Products
Version 5.2a of all applications in the GoFiler Suite has been released. This release corresponds to EDGAR 20.1 and contains changes to various EDGAR forms. Additionally, changes and improvements have been made to the Find and Replace and Proof to Browser functions and to Risk Return XDX. It also includes a new function, the ID Manager, to help manage and correct duplicate IDs inside HTML documents.
Continue reading "New Release (5.2a) for the GoFiler Family of..." »SEC Releases EDGAR 20.1
On January 27, 2020, EDGAR Release 20.1 was released by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release included changes to Form ATS-N, a new “accelerated filer status” field on a number of form types, and an upgrade to require Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 when connecting to the EDGAR System.
Continue reading "SEC Releases EDGAR 20.1" »Friday, January 24. 2020
LDC #165: A Quick Web Link Builder
While the Novaworks tools are principally used for EDGAR, sometimes there are non-EDGAR things to do. One of my activities is maintaining a website for a not-for-profit group supporting amateur radio. As part of my duties, the front page of the site has a section on recent non-club news which requires me to perform a little research and then add the links to the page. This script helps reduce the time to create the links.
Continue reading "LDC #165: A Quick Web Link Builder" »Monday, January 20. 2020
EDGAR 20.1 Security Changes
As part of security enhancements in the forthcoming EDGAR 20.1 release, the SEC will no longer accept connections to the EDGAR system that do not follow the TLS 1.2 standard. Since the GoFiler family of products uses Microsoft’s Security Support Provider Interface to connect to the EDGAR system, support for TLS 1.2 in the application is based on the current Windows operating system and Internet Explorer.
Continue reading "EDGAR 20.1 Security Changes" »Monday, January 13. 2020
Fee Rate Advisory #2 for Fiscal Year 2020
On January 9, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the second fee rate advisory for fiscal year 2020. Starting on February 18, 2020, the fee rates applicable to most securities transactions will be set at $22.10 per million dollars.
Continue reading "Fee Rate Advisory #2 for Fiscal Year 2020" »Friday, January 10. 2020
LDC #164: Validating Project Files Have XBRL
This week, we’re taking another look at using Legato to enhance GoFiler’s validation. Last month, someone asked me if there was a way GoFiler could check a 10-Q project to ensure a completed XBRL file set was attached to it. Well, this isn’t something GoFiler normally checks for (since there are times when you might want to omit these files), but we can definitely use Legato to enhance the validation of the project file, so we can warn the user if they might have forgotten something. It also gives us another opportunity to demonstrate some of the project file functions, which are always useful if you’re going to be working with GFP files.
Continue reading "LDC #164: Validating Project Files Have XBRL" »
SEC Proposes to Codify Certain Consultations and Modernize Auditor Independence Rules
On December 30th, the SEC proposed amendments to codify certain staff consultations and modernize certain aspects of its auditor independence framework. These amendments would update select aspects of the nearly two-decade-old auditor independence rule set to structure the independence rules and analysis more effectively such that relationships and services that would not pose threats to an auditor’s objectivity and impartiality do not trigger non-substantive rule breaches or potentially time consuming committee review.
Continue reading "SEC Proposes to Codify Certain Consultations..." »Tuesday, January 07. 2020
SEC Adopts Actions to Stand Up Security-Based Swap Regulatory Regime
On December 18th, the SEC approved a package of rule amendments, guidance, and a related order to expand and improve the framework for the regulation of cross-border security-based swaps, including single-name credit default swaps. This package also supports the SEC’s broad security-based swap regulatory regime in that it triggers the compliance date for security-based swap entities to register with the SEC and the implementation period for the previously adopted rules under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The rules create a coherent approach to the regulation of margin, capital, segregation, recordkeeping, reporting, and business conduct for security-based swaps.
Continue reading "SEC Adopts Actions to Stand Up Security-Based..." »Thursday, January 02. 2020
SEC Adopts Risk Mitigation Techniques for Uncleared Security-Based Swaps
On December 18th, the SEC approved new rules requiring the application of risk mitigation techniques to portfolios of uncleared security-based swaps. These new rules (15Fi-3, 15Fi-4, and 15Fi-5) establish requirements for registered security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants (SBS Entities) to: periodically reconcile outstanding security-based swaps with counterparties, engage in certain forms of portfolio compression exercises, as appropriate, and execute written trading relationship documentation with each of their counterparties prior to, or simultaneously with, executing a security-based swap transaction.
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