On September 17th, the SEC proposed rules that would update the statistical disclosures that bank and savings and loan registrants provide to investors. In addition, these changes will eliminate overlap with other SEC rules, US GAAP or IFRS. These proposed rules, which comprise a new subpart in Regulation S-K, would replace Industry Guide 3, Statistical Disclosure by Bank Holding Companies. This new subpart would include the SEC’s banking disclosure requirements.

The SEC has released draft changes to the EDGAR Filer Manual and the EDGAR System. These changes will be incorporated into the EDGAR 19.3 release and Version 52 of the EDGAR Filer Manual – Volume II, which is scheduled for release on September 30, 2019. The draft changes include important updates to the requirements for the passwords that are used when logging into both the EDGAR Filing Website and the EDGAR Online Forms Management Website.

The SEC has released draft 2020 updates to its taxonomies for public comment. The Commission encourages filers, investors, analysts, software service providers, and other interested parties to review proposed updates in an effort to continue to improve the process for creating and using XBRL structured financial statements.

Version 5.0c of all applications in the GoFiler Suite has been released. This release contains a number improvements and corrections to Page View, iXBRL View, and XDX View, including improvements to the automatic cover page tagging for inline XBRL. Various EDGAR form improvements have also been made.

On August 8th, the SEC proposed amendments that would modernize some of the descriptions and disclosures that registrants are required to make pursuant to Regulation S-K. These changes should improve disclosures for investors and simplify compliance efforts for registrants.

The XBRL US Data Quality Committee (DQC US) has approved new validation rules to aid public companies in detecting inconsistencies and errors in their XBRL-formatted financial data. These rules identify potential problems, including incorrect negative values, improper relationships between elements, and incorrect data associated with certain data. The new rules, which are listed below, were approved after publication as a draft and with consideration of public comments.

On June 18th, the SEC adopted changes to the auditor independence rules with respect to the mandated analysis to determine if an auditor is independent when said auditor has a lending relationship with shareholders of an audit client. These changes were prompted by situations where existing rules capture relationships that otherwise do not bear on the impartiality and/or objectivity of the auditor. The amendments are designed to refine these rules to better focus on lending relationships that may reasonably influence an external auditor’s impartiality/objectivity. In doing so, the changes should improve the application of the Loan Provision to the benefit of investors while reducing compliance burdens.

The SEC has requested public comment on way to simplify and improve the exempt offering framework with the goal of expanding investment opportunities and promoting capital formation while maintaining appropriate investor protections. The Concept Release on Harmonization of Securities Offering Exemptions reviews the framework for exempt offerings, including several exemptions from registration under the Securities Act of 1933 that facilitate capital raising.

With compliance dates approaching, reviewing the SEC’s mandate for operating companies and funds that they report their financial information in Inline XBRL (iXBRL) is important. These requirements date back to June 2018, when the SEC passed rules seeking to modernize and simplify financial reporting for these filers. Unlike traditional XBRL which produces a XML document containing only tagged, structured data that is difficult for a human reader to understand and interpret, iXBRL involves embedding XBRL data directly into an HTML filing so that the disclosure document is both human-readable as a formatted report of financial information and machine-readable since the tagged data can be collected and used in subsequent analyses in any number of ways. Using iXBRL improves the data’s usefulness, timeliness, and quality, which benefits investors, regulators, market participants, and other data consumers. Inline XBRL also reduces burdens and complexity to registrants and preparers as only one document containing both the formatted report and the structured data must be produced.

New filers seeking access to EDGAR must now use an updated online version of the Form ID EDGAR access application. This change went into effect June 10, 2019. The updated online version of Form ID provides applicants with enhanced user functions that should facilitate users’ abilities to save, complete, and upload the notarized Form ID authentication document.

On June 5th, the SEC voted to adopt new rules and interpretations that were designed to enhance the quality and transparency of retail investors’ relationships with investment advisers and broker-dealers. This brings the legal requirements and mandated disclosures in agreement with reasonable investor expectations while preserving access to various investment services and products in terms of choice and cost. These actions are meant to clarify the standards of conduct applicable to broker-dealers and investment advisers, help retail investors better understand and compare offered services and make an informed choice of the relationship best suited to their needs and circumstances, and support better consistency in the level of protections provided by each regime, particularly when a recommendation is made. Specifically, the rules enhance consumer protections while ensuring choices in: 1) the type of professional with whom consumers work, 2) the services they receive, and 3) how they pay for these services.

Version 5.0a of all applications in the GoFiler Suite has been released. This release corresponds to EDGAR Release 19.2 and contains a number of improvements to XDX, a new edit window type for editing CSV and structured data sheets, a new look for the icons and buttons of the user interface, and a large underlying change to HTML editing. Additionally, this version contains support for the IFRS 2019 and DEI 2019 taxonomies.