The recently passed bipartisan JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) was designed to improve access to the public capital markets for “emerging growth companies,” a new class of issuer that will enjoy relaxed financial, compensation, and other disclosures for up to five years after its initial public offering (“IPO”). Other notable aspects of the JOBS […]
Regulatory Guidelines for Social Media – FINRA and SEC Weigh In – Part 2
Social Media Marketing brings unique challenges to financial firms and Registered Investment Advisors. Both FINRA and the SEC have set out guidelines and suggestions. This is part two of a brief overview with practical suggestions you can use. Third Party Posts: Whether a third party post is attributable to the firm depends on whether the […]
Regulatory Guidelines for Social Media – Overview – FINRA and SEC Weigh In – Part 1
Social Media Marketing brings unique challenges to financial firms and Registered Investment Advisors. Both FINRA and the SEC have set out guidelines and suggestions. This is part one of a brief overview with practical suggestions you can use. Record keeping: The use of social media on personal devices presents a challenge from a record-keeping perspective. […]
Stricter Regulation on Money Market Mutual Funds
The Securities and Exchange Commission will be proposing new rules for supporting the $2.7 trillion money market mutual fund industry. It has already instituted a number of changes backed by the industry to strengthen the market’s stability. The new rules will be much stricter than the previous ones. For instance, the SEC wants to eliminate […]
What Do The New Proxy Access Rules Mean For You?
The new proxy access rules will allow shareholders to use a company’s proxy materials to propose proxy access bylaws and other election or nomination procedures. At this point, it is unclear how many shareholder proposals there will be on this subject, whether they will be structured as precatory requests for board action or as binding […]
EDGAR HTML Conversion Tips From The Experts (Part 1)
There is no magic button to flawlessly convert documents to EDGAR HTML. It is true; the tools now available have greatly reduced the time and increased the accuracy of the conversion process, but these tools still need help along the way. If your document is primarily for EDGAR filing purposes, here are a few tips […]
SEC Financial Literacy Study
On January 18, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission published a request for public comment on financial literacy and investor disclosure issues that it is studying as part of a review mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The Dodd-Frank Act directs the SEC to conduct a study of retail investors’ […]
SEC’s Whistleblower Program
With its whistleblower program officially becoming effective, the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a new web page for people to report violations of the federal securities laws and apply for a financial award. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provided the SEC with the authority to pay financial rewards to whistleblowers […]
XBRL – Crunch or Cool?
Observers have been speculating that the third-party vendors who support the 7,000 to 8,000 smaller tier 3 filers who must start tagging their financial filings into the interactive XBRL format this year, will not be able to handle the strain of tagging data for so many companies. Concern centers over the readiness of service providers […]