Securities Regulation Daily Wrap Up, REGULATION TRACKER—Upcoming SEC and CFTC comment deadlines and effective dates, (Sep 28, 2026)

By WK Editorial Staff

A table of proposed rule comment dates and final rule effective and compliance dates for SEC and CFTC rulemaking.

Recent SEC activity includes the following:

Innovation exemption. The SEC issued an "Innovation Exemption" intended to facilitate the trading of tokenized NMS stock. The order grants five-year conditional exemptions for "tokenized securities venues" from the definitions of "exchange" under Exchange Act Section 3(a)(1) and "broker" in Section 3(a)(5). The exemptions are subject to six conditions including: limits on the number and volume of tokenized stocks traded; requirements that tokenized shares confer the same rights as their traditional counterparts; notice and the opportunity to object to an issuer of underlying stock; s for third-party; and standards mandating transparent, auditable smart contracts on public blockchains. The venue also would be required to halt trading whenever the underlying NMS stock is halted on its primary exchange and to provide public notice about its operations and trading activity.

Proxy solicitation. The SEC proposed reforms to the proxy solicitation process. The amendments are intended to modernize the process to reflect advancements in technology and in shareholders communication. Among other changes, the amendments would eliminate: the requirement that companies deliver an annual report to security holders; the delivery deadline when documents are incorporated by reference into a proxy statement; and the requirement and the ability to submit Notices of Exempt Solicitation. The proposal would also shorten the minimum broker search period from 20 business days to five business days.

14a-8 rescission. The SEC has proposed to rescind Exchange Act Rule 14a-8. Rescinding the rule would leave determinations about the role of shareholder proposals to state law and company governing documents. The Commission believes that the rule exceeds the scope of its statutory authority and intrudes into matters of state law and that the justifications for adopting the rule have not been substantiated in practice. Additional proposed amendments to Rule 14a-4(c) to broaden the circumstances in which a company may exercise discretionary proxy voting authority on shareholder proposals that will be presented at a shareholder meeting but are not included in company proxy materials.

EDGAR update. The SEC has adopted amendments to the EDGAR Filer Manual. The updates to Filer Manual, Volume II: “EDGAR Filing,” Version 78 (September 2026) and amendments to Rule 301 of Regulation S-T reflect, among other items revisions to the submission templates for Forms 13F and 13F-CTR and a new online ANE Exception Notice interface on the EDGAR Filing website. EDGAR Release 26.3 will be deployed in the EDGAR system on September 14, 2026, and the updated Filer Manual volume is incorporated by reference into the Code of Federal Regulations.

XBRL exemption. The Commission announced that it granted exemptive relief from filing or submitting XBRL data in certain forms used by securities markets intermediaries. The Commission’s exemptive order said the forms targeted by the relief are primarily used to inform agency staff about compliance matters or are otherwise duplicative of other filings and submissions.

Rescission of pay-to-play. The SEC proposed to rescind its "pay-to-play" rule prohibiting investment advisers from providing compensated investment advisory services to government clients for two years after making a political contribution to certain elected officials or candidates. Specifically, the proposal would rescind Advisers Act Rule 206(4)-5 (adopted in 2010) and amend the Advisers Act recordkeeping rule (275.204-2) to eliminate the provisions requiring a registered investment adviser to make and keep certain records in connection with the political contribution rule. Other requirements of the Advisers Act and associated rules, including prohibitions on fraud, fiduciary duty requirements, the compliance rule, and the code of ethics rule, would continue to apply.

Transfer agents. The SEC proposed to overhaul and modernize its rules for registered transfer agents. The proposal, which represents the first substantive change to the framework in forty years, would amend the registration and reporting requirements for transfer agents and modernize rules to reflect technological advancements. The proposal also contains new requirements related to turnaround, risk management, and inactive securityholders. Two new rules would require the establishment of compliance policies and address the placement and removal of restrictive legends.

EU debt obligations. The SEC proposed amendments to Exchange Act Rule 3a12-8 to add the debt obligations of the European Union (EU) to the list of foreign government debt obligations designated as "exempted securities" solely for the purposes of futures marketing and trading. The proposed amendments would place futures contracts on European Union debt obligations under the exclusive jurisdiction of the CFTC, consistent with the regulatory treatment already afforded to futures on the debt obligations of several EU member states currently listed under Rule 3a12-8. The offerings of the underlying debt obligations themselves would remain subject to the federal securities laws.

Regulation Crypto Assets. The SEC proposed "Regulation Crypto Assets" to create a new regulatory framework for non-security crypto assets subject to an investment contract. The proposed rules build on a March 2026 interpretation that clarified how the federal securities laws apply to certain crypto assets and transactions. The proposed rules would create two new exemptions for securities offerings and a conditional safe harbor from the term “investment contract.” The proposal would also preempt state securities law requirements for offers and sales of covered investment contracts issued pursuant to the regulations.

Please see the SEC Regulation Tracker for proposal comment deadlines and final rule compliance dates.

CFTC

Recent CFTC activity includes the following:

Privacy Act regulations. The CFTC reopened a comment period for proposed rulemaking to amend Privacy Act regulations to exempt the CFTC-59 Insider Risk Program Records System of Records from certain provisions of the Privacy Act.

Whistleblower awards. The CFTC adopted a new final Rule 165.9(d) to create a presumption that whistleblower awardees will receive a 30 percent statutory maximum if the amount collected would yield a maximum award of $5 million and certain conditions are met. The rule is modeled on the SEC's rule 21F-6(c) as part of ongoing harmonization efforts.

Swaps clearing. The CFTC issued a final rule to modify its clearing requirement for Canadian dollar- and Mexican peso-denominated interest rate swaps. The rule removes the requirement to clear interest rate swaps referencing the Canadian Dollar Offered Rate and the Interbank Equilibrium Interest Rate, also known as TIIE, and replaces it with a requirement to clear CAD- and MXN-denominated interest rate swaps referencing overnight, nearly risk-free rates.

Form PF compliance date extension. The CFTC and SEC further delayed the compliance date for amendments to Form PF to July 1, 2027. The amendments were approved February 8, 2024, and address Form PF instructions and basic information, among other changes. Form PF is the confidential reporting form for certain SEC-registered investment advisers to private funds, including those also registered with the CFTC as a commodity pool operator (CPO) or commodity trading adviser (CTA). The extension of compliance date follows previous extensions to October 1, 2025, and October 1, 2026.

SEF order book requirement. The CFTC is seeking public comments on proposed amendments to CFTC regulation § 37.3(a)(2) to remove the order book requirement allowing swap execution facilities not to offer an order book for permitted transactions.

CPO/CTA registration exemptions. The CFTC is seeking comments on proposed amendments to part 4 of the CFTC’s regulations addressing registration requirements for commodity pool operators (CPOs) and commodity trading advisors (CTAs). The proposed amendments would add an exemption from CPO registration and related CTA registration for certain investment advisers registered with the SEC in relation to commodity pools for which the participants are limited to certain sophisticated investors and which meet other conditions. They would also increase the capital contribution threshold in the current CPO registration exemption for small commodity pools, also known as the small pool exemption, to reflect inflation.

Compute markets. The CFTC issued a request for comment to better inform its understanding and oversight of derivatives markets in compute. This request seeks comment on the size, liquidity, and other considerations with respect to compute cash markets, market oversight and manipulation concerns, customer protection, and perpetual compute futures. The request also welcomes comment on all aspects of the compute markets.

Affiliations between CFTC-registered entities. The CFTC proposed new rules and amendments to address increased affiliations between CFTC-registered entities—including derivatives clearing organizations, designated contract markets, swap execution facilities, futures commission merchants, and other market participants—such as market makers. The proposal addresses financial oversight, disclosure requirements, conflicts of interest, sharing of resources, and sharing of non-public information, among other topics.

Please see the CFTC Regulation Tracker for proposal comment deadlines and final rule compliance dates.

RegulatoryActivity: BrokerDealers InvestmentAdvisers CFTCNews CommodityFutures ClearanceSettlement Derivatives ExchangesMarketRegulation FinancialIntermediaries FormsFilings PublicCompanyReportingDisclosure RiskManagement SECNewsSpeeches Swaps