The recent breach at the SEC illustrates how prevalent internet cyberattacks have become. They are a ubiquitous threat, inherent to the information exchange the internet provides. Often times with little warning or even indication that the event is occurring, hackers can infiltrate secure systems and access nonpublic information that could be exploited or damaging to multiple parties. Particularly when it comes to EDGAR, a great deal of sensitive, private information is regularly exchanged between companies and the SEC. Should this information be accessed before it’s appropriate, it could lead to all sorts of undesirable consequences. Even something as simple as prior knowledge of the type of form a company is in the process of filing can result in unwanted outcomes. Therefore, it’s essential that we as filers, filing agents, and other involved parties protect ourselves from unwanted intrusions.

On September 20th, the SEC indicated that a cybersecurity breach that occurred in 2016 may have provided the basis through which cyber threat actors achieved illicit gains. Accordingly, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton issued a statement detailing the importance of cybersecurity to the agency and market participants. The statement also reviews the SEC’s approach to cybersecurity in an effort to mitigate the risk of further incidents.

On September 11, 2017, EDGAR 17.3 was released by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release introduces a pilot phase for the N-PORT and N-CEN EDGAR forms. Additionally, a number of forms were adjusted to allow co-registrants to designate whether they are an Emerging Growth Company.

The SEC recently released draft technical specifications for two new forms: Form N-CEN and Form N-PORT. With the upcoming release of EDGAR 17.3 (scheduled to be released September 11), these new forms will be implemented for testing.

On July 17, 2017, EDGAR 17.2 was released by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release contained changes that added new fields to a number of forms that designate whether a registrant is an Emerging Growth Company and to inform the SEC as to whether the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards. Other changes affect a number of forms, including Form D, Form CFPortal, Form 17HACON, and the exhibit document for Form ABS-EE.

On August 1, 2017, new rules that require funds to describe their securities lending activities will go into effect.

Through Novaworks Submission Service (NSS), it’s possible to automatically schedule filings. This is an extremely handy tool to help streamline your submission process, as not only can you prepare your filing in advance, you can also have GoFiler send it to the SEC for you and notify you and your production team of the filing’s status.

In March, the SEC introduced proposed changes to include Inline XBRL Tagging in financial filings. We covered these proposed amendments in this blog post. The public comment period recently ended on May 16th, and the comments are available to read here. XBRL US offered one such comment on the proposed requirements to include Inline XBRL in financial filings, and in it expressed agreement that inclusion on Inline XBRL will help to improve the quality of reported structured financial data while reducing the burden on filers.

Filers must comply with the amendments to the registration form used by open-end funds (Form N-1A) that require funds to describe their procedures for redeeming fund shares starting today, June 1, 2017.

XBRL US has started a 90-day public exposure period for the XBRL US Style Guide, which was recently revised, updated, and released by the XBRL US Domain Steering Committee. The comment period began on April 17th and continues through July 17th. The Domain Steering Committee intends for the Style Guide to facilitate the creation of consistent, high-quality XBRL taxonomies by providing uniform guidelines and recommendations.

The SEC is adopting technical amendments to make several rules and forms conform to amendments made to the Securities Act and the Exchange Act by Title I of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. These rules address regular updates to the JOBS Act, as prescribed by Congress, to continue to ensure investors and entrepeneurs benefit from crowdfunding and emerging growth opportunities.

Many EDGAR filing forms have fees associated with them. Determining the fee associated with a filing is extremely important and can be straightforward. However, there are times when the calculation can also become more complicated. Fee offsets can be a source of confusion for many filers and our support team often gets asked questions about how to prepare an EDGAR filing when fee offsets are involved.

The SEC is requesting public comment on proposed changes to Industry Guide 3 (Statistical Disclosure by Bank Holding Companies). In light of developments in the financial services industry since the publication of Guide 3, the SEC is considering modernizing the nature, timing, scope, and applicability of Guide 3, which at the moment applies strictly to Bank Holding Companies (BHCs).

The SEC recently approved and published the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) taxonomy so foreign private issuers can begin submitting their financial reports to EDGAR using XBRL. Requirements for foreign private issuers to use XBRL were originally adopted in 2009 with the caveat that such requirements would not go into effect until the IFRS taxonomy was available. Now that the taxonomy has been published on the SEC’s website, issuers may begin using it to submit financial statements.

On March 13, 2017, EDGAR 17.1 was released by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This release primarily contained changes to add a new online version of the Transfer Agent forms, Form TA-1, TA-2 and TA-W. Other changes affect a number of forms, including the Regulation A forms, the Form ABS-EE data files, Form SDR and Form N-MFP2.