Securities Regulation Daily Wrap Up, REGULATION TRACKER—Upcoming SEC and CFTC comment deadlines and effective dates, (Feb 24, 2025)

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:

New Form SHO compliance date. The Commission provided a temporary exemption from compliance with Exchange Act Rule 13f-2 and reporting on Form SHO. Filings on initial Form SHO reports will now be due by February 27, 2026 for the January 2026 reporting period. The compliance date for the rule and form was originally January 2, 2025, with Form SHO filings due on February 14, 2025. Rule 13f-2 and Form SHO were added in Release No. 34-98738 (Oct. 13, 2023), 88 FR 75100 (Nov. 1, 2023).

Technical amendments. The Commission adopted technical amendments to various rules and forms under the Securities Act and the Exchange Act. The amendments correct a variety of errors that are technical in nature, including typographical errors and erroneous cross-references in various Commission rules and forms.

Customer protection rule. The SEC adopted amendments to the customer protection rule to require carrying broker-dealers to calculate reserves and make required deposits daily rather than weekly. The rules will require carrying broker-dealers with average total credits equal to or greater than $500 million to make the relevant computations daily. Carrying broker-dealers must comply with the daily computation requirement within six months after exceeding the $500 million threshold. The SEC also amended the Net Capital Rule to allow carrying broker-dealers that are over the $500 million threshold to reduce their aggregate debit items—that is, customer-related receivables—by 2 percent rather than 3 percent if they calculate their net capital using the alternative method.

Electronic filings. The SEC amended its rules to require electronic filing of certain forms and other submissions. Broker-dealers, security-based swap dealers, and major security-based swap participants will now make certain filings and submissions that had once been submitted in paper form electronically using the EDGAR system, in structured data format where appropriate, or by posting them online. The amendments also make changes to the Financial and Operational Combined Uniform Single (FOCUS) Report to harmonize it with other rules and forms.

EDGAR Next. The SEC adopted rule and form amendments to improve access to and account management on EDGAR as part of changes related to EDGAR Next. EDGAR filers will be required to authorize designated individuals responsible for managing the filers' accounts; these individuals must present individual account credentials obtained from Login.gov to access those EDGAR accounts and make filings. Form ID has also been modernized to make the form more user-friendly. EDGAR Next functionality will include 15 optional APIs allowing for machine-to-machine interactions with EDGAR. A beta environment will be available until March 21, 2025, and a new EDGAR Filer Management website goes live on March 24, 2025.

Reporting Enhancements for Registered Investment Companies. The SEC adopted amendments to its reporting requirements on Forms N-PORT and N-CEN applicable to certain registered investment companies. Amendments to Form N-Port require funds to file reports on a monthly basis and within 30 days after the end of each month; each monthly report will be public 60 days after the end of the month. Amendments to Form N-CEN require open-end funds that are subject to liquidity risk management program requirements under ICA Rule 22e-4 to report certain information about service providers used to fulfill those requirements. The release also contains guidance on certain open-end fund liquidity risk management program requirements.

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

CFTC

Recent CFTC activity includes the following:

Customer accounts at FCMs. The CFTC approved a final rule to implement requirements for futures commission merchants (FCMs) related to margin adequacy and the treatment of separate accounts of a customer. The rule finalizes the Commission’s proposal, published in the Federal Register in March, to codify the no-action position in CFTC staff letter 19-17 regarding separate account treatment.

Safeguarding and investment of customer funds. The CFTC amended regulations governing how futures commission merchants (FCMs) and derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) safeguard and invest customer funds held for the benefit of customers engaging in futures, foreign futures, and cleared swaps transactions. The amendments revise the list of permitted investments in CFTC Regulation 1.25 and make other related changes and specifications. The amendments also eliminate the CFTC requirement that an FCM deposit customer funds with depositories that provide the CFTC with read-only electronic access to such accounts.

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

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