The improvements cover the management of filers’ accounts and have been dubbed “EDGAR Next.”
Grygo is the chief content officer for FTF & FTF News.
In case you missed it, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted “rule and form amendments” late last month that the SEC says will improve the security of its Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, otherwise known as the venerable EDGAR platform.
The improvements cover the access and management of filers’ accounts and have been dubbed “EDGAR Next.”
“From September 30, 2024, through March 21, 2025, filers will be able to prepare for enrollment, and a Beta environment will be available for testing [EDGAR Next],” according to the SEC.
“Enrollment begins March 24, 2025. The EDGAR Business Office (EBO) is available to help you understand, prepare, and make the transition to EDGAR Next,” according to the SEC. “All rule and form amendments will be effective on that date [March 24], and filers will be required to comply with all rule and form amendments by Sept. 15, 2025.”
The amendments will require EDGAR filers to “authorize identified individuals who will be responsible for managing their accounts, and individuals acting on behalf of EDGAR filers will need to present individual account credentials obtained from Login.gov to access those EDGAR accounts and make filings,” according to the SEC. For instance, the Form ID application that accesses EDGAR “will be modernized to make the form more user-friendly.”
The SEC is also allowing filers to use optional application programming interfaces (APIs), which the regulator notes is “a machine-to-machine method of making submissions, retrieving information, and performing account management tasks that will improve the efficiency and accuracy of filers’ interactions with EDGAR.”
The APIs “will allow filers to manage their EDGAR accounts with minimal manual interaction with EDGAR,” the SEC adds.
EDGAR users are encouraged to test and provide feedback about the beta software environment “that will reflect the adopted rule and form amendments and the related technical changes,” SEC officials say. “Information about signing up for beta testing and extensive additional information about the rule adoption and related technical changes can be found on the SEC website: EDGAR Next — Improving Filer Access and Account Management.”
SEC Chair Gary Gensler notes in follow-up comments that the final amendments have changes directly linked to feedback from commenters — a crucial part of the regulatory process.
“For instance, the grace period for filers to perform annual confirmation was extended from two weeks to three months. Filers will have six months to prepare for compliance, rather than one month as proposed,” Gensler says.
“They will continue to have six months to enroll in EDGAR using the new login protocols, as considered in the proposal, but the final amendments build in an additional three-month period to enroll before making filings after the compliance date. After that point, filers that have not enrolled would need to submit a new Form ID to make filings,” Gensler says.
SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce adds in her comments that EDGAR Next marks “an important modernization of EDGAR” and inspired a literary reference.
“I hope — to quote the raven in Edgar Allen Poe’s famous poem — that now we will be able to say ‘Nevermore’ to unauthorized filings and, in the process, make life easier for authorized filers,” Peirce says.
“To ensure that EDGAR Next achieves its promise as early and efficiently as possible, the implementation period is very important. Commenters already provided helpful feedback to the proposal, and I look forward to continued feedback from filers during the beta period,” Peirce says.
“To facilitate the smooth operation of EDGAR Next, I encourage the filer community to raise any concerns early and often. … In addition to contacting the EBO directly at EDGARNextBeta@sec.gov with any feedback, please feel free to contact my office at CommissionerPeirce@sec.gov ,” Peirce says.
More information about EDGAR Next can be found here: https://shorturl.at/Uc1yS
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