Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act Disclosure, 17528-17543 [2021-06292]

Agencies

• SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 63 (Monday, April 5, 2021)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 17528-17543]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-06292]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

17 CFR Parts 249 and 274

[Release No. 34-91364; IC-34227; File No. S7-03-21]
RIN 3235-AM84


Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act Disclosure

AGENCY: Securities and Exchange Commission.

ACTION: Interim final rule; request for comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: We are adopting interim final amendments to Forms 20-F, 40-F, 
10-K, and N-CSR to implement the disclosure and submission requirements 
of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (``HFCA Act''). The 
interim final amendments will apply to registrants that the Securities 
and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') identifies as having filed an 
annual report with an audit report issued by a registered public 
accounting firm that is located in a foreign jurisdiction and that the 
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (``PCAOB'') is unable to 
inspect or investigate completely because of a position taken by an 
authority in that jurisdiction. Consistent with the HFCA Act, the 
amendments require the submission of documentation to the Commission 
establishing that such a registrant is not owned or controlled by a 
governmental entity in that foreign jurisdiction and also require 
disclosure in a foreign issuer's annual report regarding the audit 
arrangements of, and governmental influence on, such registrants.

DATES: 

[[Page 17529]]

    Effective date: The interim final rule is effective on May 5, 2021.
    Compliance date: See SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION for discussion on 
compliance dates.
    Comments due date: Comments should be received on or before May 5, 
2021.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:

Electronic Comments

     Use the Commission's internet comment form (https://www.sec.gov/rules/submitcomments.htm).

Paper Comments

     Send paper comments to Vanessa A. Countryman, Secretary, 
Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 
20549-1090.

All submissions should refer to File Number S7-03-21. To help us 
process and review your comments more efficiently, please use only one 
method. The Commission will post all comments on the Commission's 
website (https://www.sec.gov/rules/interim-final-temp.shtml). Comments 
are also available for website viewing and printing in the Commission's 
Public Reference Room, 100 F Street NE, Washington, DC 20549, on 
official business days between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Due to 
pandemic conditions, however, access to the Commission's public 
reference room is not permitted at this time. All comments received 
will be posted without change. Persons submitting comments are 
cautioned that we do not redact or edit personal identifying 
information from comment submissions. You should submit only 
information that you wish to make available publicly.
    We or the staff may add studies, memoranda, or other substantive 
items to the comment file during this rulemaking. A notification of the 
inclusion in the comment file of any such materials will be made 
available on our website. To ensure direct electronic receipt of such 
notifications, sign up through the ``Stay Connected'' option at 
www.sec.gov to receive notifications by email.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven G. Hearne, Senior Special 
Counsel, at (202) 551-3430, in the Office of Rulemaking, Division of 
Corporation Finance; or Blair Burnett, Senior Counsel, at (202) 551-
6792, in the Investment Company Regulation Office, Division of 
Investment Management; U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F 
Street NE, Washington, DC 20549.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: We are adopting interim final amendments to 
the following forms.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         Commission reference                                     CFR citation (17 CFR)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Securities Exchange Act of 1934       Form 20-F.......................  Sec.   249.220f.
 (Exchange Act) \1\.
                                      Form 40-F.......................  Sec.   249.240f.
                                      Form 10-K.......................  Sec.   249.310.
Exchange Act and Investment Company   Form N-CSR......................  Sec.  Sec.   249.331 and 274.128.
 Act of 1940 (Investment Company
 Act) \2\.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Compliance: As discussed in Section II, a registrant will not be 
required to comply with the amendments until it has been identified by 
the Commission as having a non-inspection year pursuant to a process to 
be subsequently established by the Commission with appropriate notice. 
Once identified, a registrant will be required to comply with the 
amendments in its annual report for each fiscal year in which it is so 
identified.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ 15 U.S.C. 78a et seq.
    \2\ 15 U.S.C. 80a-1 et seq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I. Background

    We are adopting interim final amendments to Form 10-K, Form 20-F, 
Form 40-F, and Form N-CSR to implement the disclosure and submission 
requirements of the HFCA Act,\3\ which became law on December 18, 2020. 
Among other things, Section 2 of the HFCA Act amended Section 104 of 
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (``Sarbanes-Oxley Act'') \4\ to require 
the Commission to identify each ``covered issuer'' \5\ that has 
retained a registered public accounting firm \6\ to issue an audit 
report \7\ where that registered public accounting firm has a branch or 
office \8\ that:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \3\ Public Law 116-222, 134 Stat. 1063 (Dec. 18, 2020).
    \4\ 15 U.S.C. 7214 (as amended by Pub. L. 116-222).
    \5\ Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 104(i)(1)(A) defines ``covered 
issuer'' as an issuer that is required to file reports under Section 
13 (15 U.S.C. 78m) or Section 15(d) (15 U.S.C. 78o(d)) of the 
Exchange Act. Issuers filing reports under the Exchange Act are 
referred to in Commission forms as ``registrants.'' In this release 
we use the term ``issuers'' when referring to the HFCA Act, but 
refer to ``registrants'' when discussing the forms and form 
requirements.
    \6\ We use the terms ``registered public accounting firm'' and 
``auditor'' interchangeably to mean public accounting firms that, 
among other things, prepare accountant's reports on U.S. public 
companies and are required to register with the PCAOB. The term 
``accountant's report'' is defined in 17 CFR 210.1-02(a)(1) (Rule 1-
02(a)(1) of Regulation S-X) in regard to financial statements as a 
document in which an independent public or certified public 
accountant indicates the scope of the audit (or examination) which 
the accountant has made and sets forth that accountant's opinion 
regarding the financial statements taken as a whole, or an assertion 
to the effect that an overall opinion cannot be expressed.
    \7\ The HFCA Act uses the term ``audit report.'' As noted above, 
for the purposes of this release and the interim final amendments 
the term ``audit report'' has the same meaning as ``accountants' 
report'' in Rule 1-02(a)(1) of Regulation S-X.
    \8\ Where a branch or office of an international firm network is 
a separate legal entity from the U.S.-based or international firm 
network and that branch or office signs the audit report in its own 
name, the Commission will look to the PCAOB determination for that 
branch or office and not apply that determination to the U.S.-based 
or other branches or offices of that firm network that are not based 
in the PCAOB-identified foreign jurisdiction.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Is located in a foreign jurisdiction; and
     The PCAOB has determined that it is unable to inspect or 
investigate completely because of a position taken by an authority in 
the foreign jurisdiction.

Registrants so identified (``Commission-Identified Issuers'') are 
required to submit documentation to the Commission that establishes 
that they are not owned or controlled by a governmental entity in that 
foreign jurisdiction. In addition, if the registrant is determined to 
be a Commission-Identified Issuer for three consecutive years, Section 
2 of the HFCA Act directs the Commission to prohibit trading of the 
registrant's securities.\9\ Section 3 of the HFCA Act provides that 
Commission-Identified Issuers that are

[[Page 17530]]

foreign issuers (``Commission-Identified Foreign Issuers''), as defined 
in 17 CFR 240.3b-4 (``Exchange Act Rule 3b-4''),\10\ are subject to 
additional specified disclosure requirements, as discussed in more 
detail below.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \9\ See Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 104(i)(3). Pursuant to 
Section 104(i)(3) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as added by Section 2 
of the HFCA Act, if an issuer is a Commission-Identified Issuer for 
three consecutive years, the Commission must prohibit the securities 
of the issuer from being traded on a national securities exchange or 
through any other method that is within the jurisdiction of the 
Commission to regulate, including through ``over-the-counter'' 
trading. The implementation of Section 104(i)(3) of the Sarbanes-
Oxley Act and the required trading prohibition is not subject to the 
90-day rulemaking deadline that applies to the submission 
requirement in Section 104(i)(2) and will be addressed separately. 
The Commission staff, in deciding what to recommend to the 
Commission, is actively considering ways to implement the trading 
prohibition, and the Commission anticipates seeking comment from the 
public.
    \10\ Under Exchange Act Rule 3b-4, the term ``foreign issuer'' 
means any issuer which is a foreign government, a national of any 
foreign country or a corporation or other organization incorporated 
or organized under the laws of any foreign country.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

II. Discussion of Amendments

    The scope of the interim final amendments is limited to (1) the 
statutory mandate to issue rules that establish the manner and form in 
which a Commission-Identified Issuer must make the submissions required 
under Section 104(i)(2)(B) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and (2) the 
disclosure obligations set forth in Section 3 of the HFCA Act that we 
have added to the relevant Commission forms. The new disclosure and 
submission requirements established by the HFCA Act are triggered by 
the identification of affected registered public accounting firms by 
the PCAOB and affected registrants by the Commission.
    Under Section 104(i)(2) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as added by the 
HFCA Act, the PCAOB is responsible for determining that it is unable to 
inspect or investigate completely a registered public accounting firm 
because of a position taken by an authority in a foreign jurisdiction. 
We understand that the PCAOB is considering its obligations under the 
HFCA Act, including the process for making these determinations. We 
believe it is important that the PCAOB act quickly to identify the best 
manner in which to make these determinations. Any PCAOB rulemaking in 
response to the HFCA Act will be subject to Commission review and 
approval prior to taking effect. Once the PCAOB process has been 
established, the Commission will use the PCAOB's determination about 
which firms it is unable to inspect or investigate completely, along 
with information in a registrant's annual reports, to compile a list of 
registrants that are Commission-Identified Issuers.

Disclosure Requirement

    Section 3 of the HFCA Act requires a Commission-Identified Foreign 
Issuer to provide certain additional disclosure in its annual report 
for the year that the Commission so identifies the issuer. The HFCA Act 
requires this disclosure in the issuer's Form 10-K, Form 20-F, or a 
form that is the equivalent of, or substantially similar to, these 
forms.\11\ Specifically, a Commission-Identified Issuer is required to 
disclose:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \11\ Section 3 of the HFCA Act specifically identifies Form 10-K 
and Form 20-F. The disclosures required by Section 3 of the HFCA Act 
are also required in transition reports filed on Forms 10-K and in 
transition reports on Form 20-F that include audited financial 
statements. The disclosures should address the transition period as 
if it were a fiscal year.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     That, during the period covered by the form, the 
registered public accounting firm has prepared an audit report for the 
issuer; \12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \12\ The registered public accounting firm referenced in the 
statute means a firm that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or 
investigate completely because of a position taken by an authority 
in the foreign jurisdiction, as described in Section 104(i)(2)(A) of 
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The interim final amendments contain minor 
revisions to the statutory language to clarify this and other 
points. Specifically, the amendments require a Commission-Identified 
Foreign Issuer to disclose that, for the immediately preceding 
annual financial statement period, a registered public accounting 
firm that the PCAOB was unable to inspect or investigate completely, 
because of a position taken by an authority in the foreign 
jurisdiction, issued an audit report for the registrant.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

     The percentage of the shares of the issuer owned by 
governmental entities in the foreign jurisdiction in which the issuer 
is incorporated or otherwise organized;
     Whether governmental entities in the applicable foreign 
jurisdiction with respect to that registered public accounting firm 
have a controlling financial interest with respect to the issuer;
     The name of each official of the Chinese Communist Party 
(``CCP'') who is a member of the board of directors of the issuer or 
the operating entity with respect to the issuer; and
     Whether the articles of incorporation of the issuer (or 
equivalent organizing document) contains any charter of the CCP, 
including the text of any such charter.
    While Section 3 of the HFCA Act does not mandate specific rule or 
form changes, we believe that amending our forms to include the new 
disclosure requirements will help registrants comply with the HFCA Act. 
The Commission is therefore amending Form 10-K, Form 20-F, Form 40-
F,\13\ and Form N-CSR \14\ to reflect the disclosure requirements in 
Section 3 of the HFCA Act.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \13\ In reviewing the Commission's forms, we determined that 
Form 40-F is an equivalent or substantially similar form filed by 
foreign issuers. The Form 40-F is a form that may be used by 
Canadian issuers that seek to offer their securities in the U.S. and 
is used by those issuers for annual reports filed under Section 
13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act. As such, even though the 
form is not expressly named in the HFCA Act, its use by issuers for 
annual reports filed under Section 13(a) and Section 15(d) 
establishes the form as equivalent or substantially similar to the 
Form 10-K and Form 20-F.
    \14\ Form N-CSR is an annual reporting form used by the 
registered investment companies that will be affected by the HFCA 
Act to file their audited financial statements with the Commission. 
Although Form N-CSR is not specifically identified in the HFCA Act, 
its use by these registered investment companies for annual reports 
filed under Section 13(a) and Section 15(d) establishes the form as 
equivalent or substantially similar to the Form 10-K and Form 20-F.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Specifically, we are amending Form 10-K to add Part II, Item 9C, 
Form 20-F to add Part II, Item 16I, Form 40-F to add paragraph B.18, 
and Form N-CSR to add paragraphs (i) and (j) of Item 4. The added items 
entitled ``Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent 
Inspections'' in Form 10-K, Form 20-F, and Form 40-F are located with 
other accounting, financial, and corporate governance disclosure 
requirements but are not required to be included in a registrant's 
proxy or information statement.\15\ The amendments to Form N-CSR are 
located in an existing item entitled ``Principal Accountant Fees and 
Services.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \15\ See 17 CFR 240.14a-101 and 17 CFR 14c-101.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The registrant will be required to provide the disclosure for each 
year in which the registrant is a Commission-Identified Issuer. Because 
the period covered by the forms looks back at the prior year, a 
Commission-Identified Foreign Issuer that was identified in the prior 
year will be required to provide the HFCA Act Section 3 disclosure in 
its annual report for the year in which it was identified, even if the 
registrant's subsequent filing includes an audit report issued by a 
registered public accounting firm that the PCAOB is able to inspect or 
investigate completely.
    In addition, we have added an instruction in each of Form 20-F and 
Form 40-F to specify that the disclosure applies to annual reports, and 
not to registration statements.\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \16\ While Form 20-F and Form 40-F may be used as an initial 
registration form, we believe that in the context of Section 3 of 
the HFCA Act, which linked the Form 20-F requirement to the Form 10-
K requirement, the disclosure was intended to be required when the 
form is used as an annual report.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Submission Requirement

    As discussed above, in addition to the Section 3 disclosure 
requirement, Section 2 of the HFCA Act amended Sarbanes-Oxley Act 
Section 104 to, in part, require any Commission-Identified Issuer to 
submit to the Commission documentation establishing that the issuer is 
not owned or controlled by a governmental entity in the foreign 
jurisdiction of the registered public accounting firm that the PCAOB is 
unable to inspect or investigate completely, and mandates that the 
Commission adopt rules establishing the manner and form in which such

[[Page 17531]]

submissions will be made no later than 90 days after enactment.
    Because the submission requirement is triggered by the preparation 
of an audit report on a registrant's financial statements, the 
Commission is amending Form 10-K, Form 20-F, Form 40-F, and Form N-CSR 
to implement this provision.\17\ In contrast to the disclosure 
requirement in Section 3 of the HFCA Act that applies only to 
Commission-Identified Foreign Issuers, the submission requirement in 
Section 2 of the HFCA Act applies to all Commission-Identified Issuers. 
The amendments require a registrant that is a Commission-Identified 
Issuer that is not owned or controlled by a governmental entity in the 
described foreign jurisdiction to electronically submit documentation 
\18\ to the Commission on a supplemental basis that establishes that 
the registrant is not so owned or controlled. Under the interim final 
amendments, such submissions will be made through the Electronic Data 
Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (``EDGAR'') system \19\ on or before 
the due date of the relevant annual report form.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \17\ See supra notes 11, 13, 14, and 16 and accompanying 
discussion.
    \18\ For purposes of these requirements, use of the term 
``supplemental'' does not have the meaning of ``supplemental 
information'' in 17 CFR 240.12b-4.
    \19\ Prior to the due date of any such required submission, the 
Commission will amend the EDGAR Filer Manual to provide technical 
instructions regarding how such submissions can be uploaded onto the 
EDGAR system.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    While the interim final amendments prescribe the timing and means 
by which such submissions shall be made, neither they nor the HFCA Act 
specify the particular types of documentation that can or should be 
submitted for this purpose. Moreover, we recognize that available 
documentation could vary depending upon the organizational structure 
and other factors specific to the registrant. Thus, as an initial 
matter, registrants will have flexibility under the interim final 
amendments to determine how best to satisfy this requirement. At the 
same time, we are requesting comment as to whether the Commission 
should require specific types of documentation or whether additional 
guidance would be necessary or useful to registrants as they seek to 
comply with the submission requirement.
    For purposes of these requirements, we preliminarily believe that 
the use of the terms ``owned or controlled'' in Section 2 of the HFCA 
Act, and ``owned'' and ``controlling financial interest'' in Section 3 
of the HFCA Act (which are not otherwise defined in the statute), are 
intended to reference a person's or governmental entity's ability to 
``control'' the registrant as that term is used in the Exchange Act and 
the Exchange Act rules.\20\ A registrant that is owned or controlled by 
a foreign governmental entity is not required to submit such 
documentation under the interim final amendments. However, we note that 
Commission-Identified Foreign Issuers are required to make certain 
disclosures about their foreign affiliations and ownership by 
governmental entities pursuant to the disclosure requirements of 
Section 3 of the HFCA Act.\21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \20\ See Exchange Act Section 13(d), 17 CFR 210.1-02(g), and 17 
CFR 240.12b-2. However, we are requesting comment on this point 
below.
    \21\ We believe that providing this clarification will be 
helpful to registrants and that it is a reasonable reading of 
Section 2 and Section 3 of the HFCA Act, as without such 
clarification a registrant that is owned or controlled by a 
governmental entity in the foreign jurisdiction would be unable to 
comply with Section 2 of the HFCA Act (Section 104(i)(1)(B) of the 
Sarbanes-Oxley Act), but would be expected to continue reporting and 
providing disclosure as contemplated by the disclosure requirements 
in Section 3 of the HFCA Act.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Timing Considerations

    Section 104(i)(1)(B) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act \22\ provides that a 
non-inspection year is any year, after the date of enactment of the 
HFCA Act, during which: (1) The Commission identifies an issuer as 
having retained a registered public accounting firm for the audit 
report on its financial statements; (2) That registered public 
accounting firm has a branch or office that is located in a foreign 
jurisdiction; and (3) The PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate 
completely the registered public accounting firm because of a position 
taken by an authority in that foreign jurisdiction. Section 3 of the 
HFCA Act requires certain disclosures by a Commission-Identified 
Foreign Issuer to appear in an annual report that covers a ``non-
inspection year.'' Similarly, Section 104(i)(2)(B) of the Sarbanes-
Oxley Act \23\ requires the submission to the Commission of 
documentation relating to government control of Commission-Identified 
Issuers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \22\ Section 104(i)(1)(B) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was added by 
Section 2 of the HFCA Act.
    \23\ Section 104(i)(2)(B) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was added by 
Section 2 of the HFCA Act.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    An annual report requires audited consolidated financial statements 
for that year and certain prior periods under 17 CFR 210.3-01 through 
3-20 (Article 3 of Regulation S-X) and corresponding provisions of Form 
20-F and Form 40-F.\24\ Audited financial statements include an audit 
report that must be provided with the financial statements included in 
a registrant's annual report.\25\ Therefore, any year in which the 
Commission has identified a registrant as having retained a registered 
public accounting firm meeting the criteria described above for the 
audit report on its financial statements in its most recent annual 
report made under the Exchange Act will be deemed a non-inspection 
year. The submission requirement under Section 104(i)(2)(B) of the 
Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the disclosure requirements under Section 3 of 
the HFCA Act, if applicable, would then be required for the annual 
report covering such non-inspection year.\26\ For example, if a 
registrant is identified based on its Form 10-K filing made in 2022 for 
the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 as being a Commission-
Identified Issuer, then 2022 would be deemed a non-inspection year. 
Such registrant would be required to comply with the submission and, if 
applicable, the disclosure requirements in its Form 10-K filing 
covering the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, which is required to 
be filed in 2023.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \24\ See, e.g., Article 3 of Regulation S-X; see also 17 CFR 
210.6-01 through 6-11 (Article 6 of Regulation S-X) (for similar 
requirements as applied to registered investment companies).
    \25\ Because the disclosure and submission requirements in the 
HFCA Act are triggered by the filing of an audit report on the 
``financial statements of the covered issuer'' that is prepared by 
an audit firm ``retained by the covered issuer,'' we believe it 
would be consistent with the language and structure of the statute 
to base the non-inspection year determination on registrant's annual 
report filings. Although there may be instances in which a 
registrant is required to include audited financial statements in 
connection with other filings under the Exchange Act, such as Form 
8-K (17 CFR 249.308) filings by former shell companies (see Item 
2.01(f) of Form 8-K), these filings are typically more analogous to 
an initial registration statement and not an ongoing reporting 
requirement as contemplated by the reference to Exchange Act 
Sections 13 and 15(d) in Section 2 of the HFCA Act.
    \26\ Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 104(i)(1)(B) (as added by 
Section 2 of the HFCA Act) defines a ``non-inspection year'' as a 
year ``during which'' the Commission identifies a registrant as 
having filed an Exchange Act report that contains an audit report 
issued by an audit firm that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or 
investigate completely. By contrast, the disclosures required by 
Section 3 of the HFCA Act are required in ``each form filed by that 
issuer that covers such non-inspection year.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The HFCA Act was enacted on December 18, 2020 and provides for 
identification of the issuers required to file reports under Section 13 
or 15(d) of the Exchange Act during a year that begins ``after the date 
of enactment'' of the HFCA Act. Given this statutory language, a 
registrant will not be subject to a non-inspection year determination 
for any fiscal year ending on or prior to December 31, 2020, and 
accordingly, a registrant will not have to provide either the HFCA 
Act's Section 3 disclosure or

[[Page 17532]]

the Section 2 submission for those years.
    For fiscal years beginning after December 31, 2020, and once the 
PCAOB has made its determinations pursuant to the HFCA Act, the 
Commission will identify registrants pursuant to the HFCA Act based on 
the PCAOB's determination and on registrants' annual reports. The 
Commission will issue appropriate notice once it has established the 
process by which it will begin to identify registrants pursuant to the 
HFCA Act, and is requesting public comment herein regarding the 
appropriate mechanics for determining Commission-Identified Issuers. A 
registrant will not be required to comply with the disclosure 
requirement or the submission requirement until the Commission 
identifies it as having a non-inspection year. Once identified, a 
registrant will be required to provide the HFCA Act disclosure in its 
annual report for each non-inspection year, i.e., the report covering 
the fiscal year in which the registrant was included in the list of 
Commission-Identified Issuers.

Request for Comment

    We request and encourage any interested person to submit comments 
on any aspect of the interim final amendments, other matters that might 
have an impact on the amendments, and any suggestions for further 
revisions. When commenting, it would be most helpful if you include the 
reasoning behind your position or recommendation. In particular, we 
seek comment on the following:

Determination of Commission-Identified Issuers

    1. The Commission is required to identify registrants subject to 
the HFCA Act disclosure and submission requirements based on the 
PCAOB's determination relating to the registered public accounting firm 
that is retained by the registrant and that prepares the registrant's 
audit report. We are currently considering what process to use for 
identifying registrants (including the process and feasibility of 
communicating to those registrants regarding their status) as 
Commission-Identified Issuers. We request comment related to this 
process on the following:
    a. The HFCA Act requires the Commission to identify covered issuers 
that ``retain'' a registered public accounting firm that has a branch 
or office that is located in a foreign jurisdiction and that the PCAOB 
is unable to inspect or investigate completely because of a position 
taken by an authority in that jurisdiction. The HFCA Act does not 
define the term ``retain.'' While multiple public accounting firms may 
work on the audit of a registrant, for purposes of interpreting and 
applying the HFCA Act's provisions, we understand the retained firm to 
be the firm that signs an accountant's report on the registrant's 
consolidated financial statements that is included in a registrant's 
Exchange Act report. We believe this is consistent with the 
understanding of the term ``retain'' by the auditing profession. Is our 
understanding of the term ``retained'' appropriate in this context?
    b. We are considering making the determination of Commission-
Identified Issuers on an annual basis, not earlier than a date after 
the annual report forms for registrants with December 31 fiscal year 
ends are due to be filed, given that the majority of registrants have a 
calendar year end. The identification would be based on the audit 
report contained in a registrant's annual report filed with the 
Commission for the most recently completed fiscal year preceding the 
date of the Commission determination. Should we establish a single 
determination date each year? If so, should we make the determination 
on or around May 15? Would some other date, earlier or later in the 
year be more helpful to registrants affected by the determination? 
Alternatively, should we base the determination on when the PCAOB makes 
its determination public? Should we make the determination more often, 
such as monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually? Should we instead make 
individual determinations on issuer-specific dates, such as the 
measurement date for determining accelerated filer status \27\ or a 
date linked to the fiscal year end of the registrant?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \27\ See 17 CFR 240.12b-2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    c. Should we publish a list of Commission-Identified Issuers on our 
website? Should Commission-Identified Issuers be identified on EDGAR so 
investors may more easily identify which registrants are on the list? 
If we publish a list of Commission-Identified Issuers, how should the 
Commission address any potential errors in identification relating to a 
registrant's status? Should the Commission provide guidance or 
prescribe rules relating to disclosure or procedures for identification 
of errors relating to a registrant's status?
    d. To facilitate satisfaction of HFCA Act requirements, should we 
introduce a structured data tagging requirement pertaining to the 
auditor name and jurisdiction on the audit report signed by the 
registered public accounting firm in the registrant's Form 10-K, Form 
20-F, and Form 40-F? Such tagging would provide machine-readable data 
directly from the registrant identifying the audit firm retained by it, 
and may therefore facilitate the Commission's determination of the 
registrants it should designate as Commission-Identified Issuers. If we 
introduced such a requirement, should the information be required to be 
tagged in Inline XBRL? Should we instead consider a tagging requirement 
to facilitate the determination of Commission-Identified Issuers that 
would not specify a particular structured data language to be used? 
Would the use of tagging also facilitate the ability of investors and 
other interested parties to identify registrants at risk of trading 
prohibitions resulting from three consecutive non-inspection years? 
What would be the costs associated with introducing a structured data 
tagging requirement pertaining to the auditor name and jurisdiction? 
Should we introduce this structured data tagging requirement for Form 
N-CSR? Is there any circumstance when that tagged information in the 
Form N-CSR would differ from the information the Commission already 
collects on Form N-CEN (17 CFR 249.330) in a structured data format 
regarding a fund's auditor?

HFCA Act Disclosure Requirement

    2. We are adopting interim final amendments to reflect the 
disclosure requirements in Section 3 of the HFCA Act. With respect to 
such disclosure requirements, we further request comment on the 
following:
    a. The interim final amendments require a registrant to disclose 
that, during the period covered by the form, a registered public 
accounting firm that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate 
completely because of a position taken by an authority in the foreign 
jurisdiction has prepared an audit report for the registrant. Should a 
registrant that changes from using a non-inspected registered public 
accounting firm to an inspected firm be required to affirmatively state 
that it no longer retains the identified registered public accounting 
firm to audit its financial statements?
    b. The interim final amendments require that the registrant 
disclose the name of each official of the CCP who is a member of the 
board of directors of the registrant or the operating entity with 
respect to the registrant. Should we define what it means to be an 
official of the CCP or would further guidance on this requirement be 
helpful? For example, would clarification of the phrase ``operating 
entity with respect to

[[Page 17533]]

the registrant'' be helpful or is the term generally understood?
    c. Do the interim final amendments cover all of the forms in which 
disclosure is required by the HFCA Act? Should the amendments cover any 
additional forms? If so, which forms and what is the basis for 
requiring the disclosure in those forms? For example, should we 
consider requiring the disclosure in initial registration statements, 
such as 17 CFR 249.210 (Form 10)? Requiring this disclosure in initial 
registration statements would provide potential investors in these new 
registrants with disclosure related to the risk that these registrants 
have retained a registered public accounting firm that may subject the 
registrant to the HFCA Act trading prohibition. Alternatively, or in 
addition, should we amend Form 8-K to require disclosure by a 
registrant of the Commission's determination that the registrant is a 
Commission-Identified Issuer? Requiring this disclosure in a Form 8-K 
would provide additional notice of the Commission's determination, 
prior to the filing of the annual report covering that non-inspection 
year. What would be the costs of expanding registrants' disclosure 
obligations in these ways?
    d. Are the new disclosure requirements in Item 9C. of Form 10-K, 
Item 16I. of Form 20-F, paragraph B.18 of Form 40-F, and paragraphs (i) 
and (j) of Item 4 of Form N-CSR sufficiently clear? Is there any 
additional guidance or clarity that the Commission can provide to 
assist registrants in preparing and providing the disclosure?
    e. Should we consider moving the disclosure requirement in Part II, 
Item 9C. of Form 10-K to Regulation S-K? Would the disclosure be more 
appropriate in a different part of the Form 10-K, such as in Part III 
where the information could be incorporated from the proxy statement? 
Similarly, would the disclosure be more appropriate in a different part 
of the Form 20-F or Form 40-F?
    f. For registered investment companies, should we locate the 
requirements implementing the HFCA Act in another form? For example, 
should the Commission locate these requirements in Form N-CEN to cover 
unit investment trusts, which do not file audited financial statements 
on Exchange Act reporting forms? Would the requirements be more 
appropriate in a different part of the Form N-CSR?

HFCA Act Submission Requirement

    3. We are adopting interim final amendments to implement the 
submission requirements in Section 104(i)(1)(B) of the Sarbanes-Oxley 
Act (as added by Section 2 of the HFCA Act) that track the statutory 
language. With respect to such submission requirements, we further 
request comment on the following:
    a. The submission requirement for documentation relating to 
governmental ownership or control is included in certain annual report 
forms (i.e., Form 10-K, Form 20-F, Form 40-F, and Form N-CSR), and 
registrants that are Commission-Identified Issuers will need to submit 
their documentation to the Commission on or before the due date for the 
relevant annual report. Should the submission be made in conjunction 
with the registrant's annual report? Should there be a different due 
date for the submission? Should we locate the submission requirement in 
a different form or rule, such as Form 8-K or Form 6-K (17 CFR 
249.306)?
    b. The interim final amendments provide that the submission be made 
electronically to the Commission on a supplemental basis. Should the 
documentation submitted to the Commission be made publicly available, 
should it be retained non-publicly (subject to applicable law), and/or 
should the registrant be allowed to request confidential treatment for 
some or all of the submission? Alternatively, should the submission be 
publicly filed as an exhibit to the form or filed with the Commission 
in some other way to make it more accessible?
    c. Should the Commission require specific types of documentation 
for satisfying the HFCA Act Section 2 submission requirement? If so, 
what specific documentation should be required? Alternatively, is it 
appropriate to retain flexibility for registrants to determine what 
documentation to provide in order to meet this requirement? If so, is 
additional guidance necessary for registrants to determine what 
documentation is sufficient to establish that they are not owned or 
controlled by a governmental entity in the foreign jurisdiction? Should 
we provide a non-exclusive list of documents that could be submitted to 
satisfy the submission requirement, such as a legal opinion or a 
statement or certification from an officer or director of the company 
that it is not controlled by a governmental entity?
    d. Commission-Identified Issuers that are owned or controlled by a 
foreign governmental entity are not required to submit documentation to 
the Commission. Should we require these Commission-Identified Issuers 
to affirmatively state that they are owned or controlled by a foreign 
governmental entity?
    4. Should we define particular terms or provide guidance regarding 
the use of those particular terms in our form amendments? For example, 
should we provide additional definitions or guidance on what is 
considered a ``governmental entity''? Is guidance necessary to help 
registrants comply with Section 2 and Section 3 of the HFCA Act? For 
example, we have provided guidance that the terms ``owned or 
controlled,'' ``owned,'' and ``controlling financial interest'' should 
be read with reference to how the term ``control'' is used in the 
Exchange Act and the existing definition in the Exchange Act rules. 
Would additional guidance as to what it means to be ``owned or 
controlled,'' ``owned,'' or having a ``controlling financial interest'' 
be helpful or is the guidance sufficient? Should we make any further 
amendments to our rules to address these points? For example, should we 
specify the basis of accounting that must be used in making a 
``controlling financial interest'' determination? As another example, 
for registered investment companies, should the terms ``owned or 
controlled,'' ``owned,'' and ``controlling financial interest'' be read 
with reference to how the term control is used in the Investment 
Company Act and Investment Company Act rules?
    5. The interim final amendments do not require the HFCA Act Section 
3 disclosure until an issuer has been identified by the Commission and 
in no event would disclosure be required for fiscal years ending on or 
before December 31, 2020. Should we provide additional guidance on the 
required timing and disclosure? What additional guidance would be 
useful?
    6. If a registrant is determined to be a Commission-Identified 
Issuer for three consecutive years, Section 2 of the HFCA directs the 
Commission to prohibit the securities of the registrant from being 
traded in the U.S. market. As mentioned earlier, implementation of such 
trading prohibitions will be addressed separately. Are there any 
considerations we should take into account while determining how to 
best implement the trading prohibition requirements of the HFCA Act?
    With respect to any comments, we note that they are of greatest 
assistance if accompanied by supporting data and analysis of the issues 
addressed in those comments.

III. Procedural and Other Matters

    If any of the provisions of these rules, or the application thereof 
to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, such invalidity 
shall not affect other provisions or application of such

[[Page 17534]]

provisions to other persons or circumstances that can be given effect 
without the invalid provision or application.
    Pursuant to the Congressional Review Act,\28\ the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs has designated these rules as not a 
``major rule,'' as defined by 5 U.S.C. 804(2).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \28\ 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Administrative Procedure Act (``APA'') generally requires an 
agency to publish notice of a rulemaking in the Federal Register and 
provide an opportunity for public comment. This requirement does not 
apply, however, if the agency ``for good cause finds . . . that notice 
and public procedure are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the 
public interest.'' \29\ Section 2 of the HFCA Act requires Commission 
rulemaking within 90 days of the date of enactment in order to 
``establish the manner and form in which a covered issuer shall make a 
submission required under paragraph (2)(B).'' Furthermore, Section 3 of 
the HFCA Act requires certain disclosure from issuers, and the 
amendments to Form 10-K, Form 20-F, Form 40-F, and Form N-CSR clarify 
issuers' obligations under the HFCA Act. Because the amendments conform 
the specified forms to the requirements of a newly enacted statute and 
in light of the 90-day rulemaking directive in Section 2 of the HFCA 
Act, the Commission finds that notice and public comment are 
impracticable and unnecessary.\30\ While the amendments being adopted 
in this release conform the specified forms to the HFCA Act's 
requirements, we also are soliciting comment on various related topics 
that the Commission may seek to address in subsequent releases, 
depending on the public feedback received and other considerations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \29\ 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(3)(B).
    \30\ The amendment also does not require analysis under the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act. See 5 U.S.C. 604(a) (requiring a final 
regulatory flexibility analysis only for rules required by the APA 
or other law to undergo notice and comment).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

IV. Economic Analysis

A. Introduction and Broad Economic Considerations

    As discussed above, we are amending Form 10-K, Form 20-F, Form 40-
F, and Form N-CSR to implement the disclosure and submission 
requirements of the HFCA Act. We are mindful of the costs imposed by, 
and the benefits obtained from, our rules. In this section, we analyze 
potential economic effects stemming from the amendments.\31\ We analyze 
these effects against a baseline that consists of the current 
regulatory framework and current market practices.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \31\ Exchange Act Section 3(f) requires the Commission, when 
engaging in rulemaking where it is required to consider or determine 
whether an action is necessary or appropriate in the public 
interest, to consider, in addition to the protection of investors, 
whether the action will promote efficiency, competition, and capital 
formation. Further, Exchange Act Section 23(a)(2) requires the 
Commission, when making rules under the Exchange Act, to consider 
the impact that the rules would have on competition and prohibits 
the Commission from adopting any rule that would impose a burden on 
competition that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of 
the purposes of the Exchange Act. Additionally, Section 2(c) of the 
Investment Company Act requires us, when engaging in rulemaking that 
requires us to consider or determine whether an action is consistent 
with the public interest, to also consider, in addition to the 
protection of investors, whether the action will promote efficiency, 
competition, and capital formation. Although we are adopting 
amendments to Form N-CSR to implement the HFCA Act as applied to 
registered investment companies, based on recent Form N-CEN filings, 
no registered investment company reported having retained a 
registered public accounting firm located in a foreign jurisdiction 
for the preparation of the company's financial statements. Based on 
this data, and Commission staff experience, we estimate that no 
registered investment companies will be subject to the requirements 
of the interim final amendments upon the rule's adoption. 
Accordingly, we do not expect any economic effects associated with 
the amendment to Form N-CSR.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As a threshold matter, we note that the amendments discussed in 
this economic analysis implement discrete components of the HFCA Act. 
Other aspects of the statute, such as the identification of issuers 
with non-inspection years and implementation of the trading 
prohibitions in Section 2 of the HFCA Act, will be addressed separately 
at a later date. Accordingly, the focus of this economic analysis is on 
the effects arising from the disclosure and submission requirements in 
the HFCA Act. Where possible, we have attempted to quantify the 
expected economic effects of the amendments. In some cases, however, we 
are unable to quantify these economic effects. Some of the potential 
economic effects are inherently difficult to quantify. In some 
instances, we lack the information or data necessary to provide 
reasonable estimates for the economic effects of the amendments. Where 
we cannot quantify the relevant economic effects, we discuss them in 
qualitative terms.
    The new disclosure requirements will increase transparency about 
the reliability of affected issuers' financial statements as well as 
the characteristics of their ownership and control structures. High-
quality disclosures, including high-quality financial statements, are a 
cornerstone of well-functioning capital markets.\32\ Such disclosures 
reduce information asymmetries between investors and issuers, with 
positive effects on price efficiency and capital allocation.\33\ 
Broadly speaking, academic research shows that increasing the quality 
of financial reporting improves price efficiency and reduces an 
issuer's cost of capital.\34\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \32\ See, e.g., Christian Leuz & Peter Wysocki, The Economics of 
Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation, 54 J. Acct. Research 
525 (2016); and Anne Beyer, Daniel Cohen, Thomas Lys & Beverly 
Walther, The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent 
literature, 50 J. Acct. Econ 296 (2010).
    \33\ See, e.g., Douglas W. Diamond & Robert E. Verrecchia, 
Disclosure, Liquidity, and the Cost of Capital, 46 J. FIN 1325 
(1991).
    \34\ See, e.g., Stephen Brown & Stephen A. Hillegeist, How 
Disclosure Quality Affects the Level of Information Asymmetry, 12 
Rev. Account. Stud. 443 (2007) (showing how better disclosure 
quality reduces information asymmetry); Nilabhra Bhattacharya, 
Hemang Desai, & Kumar Venkataraman, Does Earnings Quality Affect 
Information Asymmetry? Evidence from Trading Costs, 30 Cont. 
Account. Res. 482 (2013) (showing that earnings quality reduces 
information asymmetry); Partha Sengupta, Corporate Disclosure 
Quality and the Cost of Debt, 73 Account. Rev. 459 (1998) (showing 
that high disclosure quality reduces the cost of debt); Christine 
Botosan, Disclosure Level and the Cost of Equity Capital, 72 Acc. 
Rev. 323 (1997) (finding that disclosure quality reduces the cost of 
equity for firms with low analyst coverage); Mark E. Evans, 
Commitment and Cost of Equity Capital: An Examination of Timely 
Balance Sheet Disclosure in Earnings Announcements, 33 Cont. 
Account. Res. 1136 (2016) (finding that ``firms which consistently 
disclose balance sheet detail in relatively timely earnings 
announcements have lower costs of capital compared to other 
firms''); For a survey of financial reporting research, see Anne 
Beyer, Daniel A. Cohen, Thomas Z. Lys, & Beverly R. Walther, The 
Financial Reporting Environment: Review of the Recent Literature, 50 
J. Account. Econ 296 (2010).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Financial reporting quality is in part determined by audit quality. 
According to academic studies, PCAOB oversight has led to improvements 
in audit quality and to increased investor confidence in the quality of 
the audited financial statements.\35\ However, when the PCAOB is unable 
to inspect some auditors there is a lack of transparency with respect 
to the audit quality provided by such firms. As a result, there is 
uncertainty regarding the reliability of the financial information of

[[Page 17535]]

issuers audited by firms that are not inspected, which can potentially 
lead to suboptimal investment decisions by investors.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \35\ See, e.g., Daniel Aobdia, The Impact of the PCAOB 
Individual Engagement Inspection Process--Preliminary Evidence, 93 
Account. Rev. 53 (2018) (concluding that ``both audit firms and 
clients care about the PCAOB individual engagement inspection 
process and, in several instances, gravitate toward the level set by 
the Part I Finding bar''); Mark L. DeFond & Clive S. Lennox, Do 
PCAOB Inspections Improve the Quality of Internal Control Audits?, 
55 J. Account. Res. 591 (2017) (finding evidence consistent with 
``PCAOB inspections improving the quality of internal control audits 
by prompting auditors to remediate deficiencies in their audits of 
internal controls''); Brandon Gipper, Christian Leuz, & Mark 
Maffett, Public Oversight and Reporting Credibility: Evidence from 
the PCAOB Audit Inspection Regime, 33 Rev. Financ. Stud. 4532 
(concluding that ``consistent with an increase in reporting 
credibility after the introduction of public audit oversight, we 
find that capital market responses to earnings surprises increase 
significantly'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In addition, academic literature provides evidence of varying types 
of impact of ownership and control structures on firm value.\36\ 
Government ownership, in particular, can be related to both risks and 
benefits for investors. Evidence in the literature highlights 
inefficiencies and expropriation risks as a result of government 
ownership or control, whereas other studies provide evidence of easier 
access to financing.\37\ Effects from government ownership or control 
on firm value may be further amplified when the regulatory environment 
in the foreign jurisdiction is weak, and when there is heightened 
political risk.\38\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \36\ See, e.g., Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, A survey of 
corporate governance, 52 J. Fin. 737 (1997) (discussing both the 
theory and empirical evidence on the effect of large shareholders on 
firm value).
    \37\ See, e.g., Ginka Borisova, Veljko Fotak, Kateryna Holland & 
William Megginson, Government ownership and the cost of debt: 
Evidence from government investments in publicly traded firms, 118 
J. Fin. Econ. 168 (2015) (showing that during times of firm-specific 
or economy-wide distress, the dominant effect of state equity 
ownership is a reduction in the cost of debt, consistent with an 
implicit debt guarantee of government ownership); Gongmen Chen, 
Michael Firth & Liping Xu, Does the type of ownership control 
matter? Evidence from China's listed companies, 33 J. Bank. Finance 
171 (2009) (finding evidence that the type of government ownership 
affects value and performance).
    \38\ See, e.g., Laura Liu, Haibing Shu & John Wei, The impacts 
of political uncertainty on asset prices: Evidence from the Bo 
scandal in China, 125 J. Fin. Econ 286 (2017) (concluding that 
political uncertainty is a priced risk as evidenced by stock price 
reactions following the 2012 Bo Xilai political scandal in China; 
the study shows amplified effects on prices for state-owned 
enterprises and politically connected companies); Bryan Kelly, Lubos 
Pastor & Pietro Veronesi, The price of political uncertainty: Theory 
and evidence from the option market, 71 J. Fin. 2417 (2016) (finding 
that options whose lives span political events tend to be more 
expensive, and that such protection is more valuable in a weaker 
economy and amid higher political uncertainty).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The required disclosures and submissions will reduce uncertainty 
about characteristics that may affect firm value and risk and therefore 
could facilitate investors' capital allocation decisions. Some of the 
information required to be disclosed under the amendments may be 
otherwise available to investors through other sources or overlap with 
existing mandated disclosures.\39\ In such cases, we expect the 
required disclosures could nevertheless reduce search costs for 
investors and potentially enhance investor protection. In addition, the 
submission requirement will provide some reassurance to investors that 
Commission-Identified Issuers that do not disclose any ownership or 
control by governmental entities (in foreign jurisdictions that prevent 
PCAOB inspections) are not, in fact, owned or controlled by such 
entities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \39\ See infra section IV.B.1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The amendments will impose compliance costs on issuers that may 
vary based on characteristics of their audit arrangements and ownership 
structure. Although these compliance costs, in themselves, may not be 
significant for most firms, the costs may nonetheless cause certain 
issuers to accelerate their response to other aspects of the HFCA Act, 
such as switching audit firms or exiting the U.S. markets altogether. 
We do not assess the magnitude of the effects arising from 
implementation of other aspects of the HFCA Act, including the trading 
prohibition, at this time, as they will depend on the approach taken by 
the PCAOB and the Commission to implement those parts of the 
statute.\40\ We note, however, that those effects are likely to be much 
more significant than the comparatively limited benefits and costs 
associated with the current amendments. For similar reasons, our 
analysis does not encompass the effects to audit firms of being 
identified by the PCAOB as being a firm that it is unable to inspect or 
investigate completely.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \40\ See, e.g., Section 104(i)(3) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as 
added by Section 2 of the HFCA Act.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

B. Baseline

1. Regulatory Baseline
    The disclosures and submissions required by the amendments will 
potentially provide the Commission, as well as market participants, 
with more readily accessible and comparable information regarding a 
number of Commission-Identified Issuers' characteristics, namely: (1) 
The extent of ownership or control by a governmental entity in a 
jurisdiction where the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate 
completely because of a position taken by an authority in that 
jurisdiction, (2) the use of a registered public accounting firm in 
preparation of an audit report that the PCAOB is unable to fully 
inspect, (3) the presence and identity of any official of the CCP who 
is a member of the board of directors, and (4) the presence and 
specific text of any charter of the CCP contained in the registrant's 
articles of incorporation (or equivalent organizing document). We 
therefore analyze the extent to which such requirements will change 
existing regulatory requirements or the current practices of 
potentially affected registrants.
    Compliance with the HFCA Act will require disclosures and 
submissions pertaining to the ownership or control of a registrant by a 
governmental entity in the foreign jurisdiction of the registered 
public accounting firm that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or 
investigate completely. In practice, many registrants already include 
disclosures similar to the information required by the HFCA Act in the 
portions of their respective periodic reports pertaining to registrant-
specific risks.\41\ Others provide detailed diagrams to illustrate 
their ownership structure within their descriptions of business or 
otherwise seek to inform readers of their variable interest entity 
(``VIE'') arrangements within the financial statements included in 
periodic disclosures.\42\ The levels of detail and specificity 
associated with these disclosures vary, however, and the information 
often is not easily comparable across filings given that similar 
disclosures may not occur within the same item or section of the 
report.\43\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \41\ For example, some registrants may provide these disclosures 
in response to Item 105 of Regulation S-K [17 CFR 229.105] 
(requiring a registrant to disclose a discussion of the material 
factors that make an investment in the registrant or offering 
speculative or risky).
    \42\ See FASB Interpretation No. 46, Consolidation of Variable 
Interest Entities.
    \43\ See, e.g., Justin Hopkins, Mark H. Lang & Jianxin (Donny) 
Zhao, The Rise of US-Listed VIEs from China: Balancing State Control 
and Access to Foreign Capital, Darden Business School Working Paper 
No. 3119912, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise Research Paper 
No. 19-17 (2018), available at https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3119912 (finding that in 42 percent of reviewed year 2013 Forms 
10-K, Chinese firms disclose VIE structure, where ``some firms 
simply mention the VIE structure in passing, while others explicitly 
disclosing the legal risks of the VIE, documenting which specific 
subsidiaries utilize the VIE and providing pro forma balance sheets 
and income statements for these subsidiaries, as well as summarizing 
the specific contracts including the parties and terms''); See also, 
Paul Gillis & Michelle R. Lowry, Son of Enron: Investors Weigh the 
Risks of Chinese variable Interest Entities, 26 J. Appl. Corp. Fin. 
61 (2014).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    One notable exception to this variation in disclosures, however, is 
the disclosure by registrants of the PCAOB's inability to conduct 
inspections of their respective independent audit firms. We observe a 
highly similar type and pattern of disclosure regarding the PCAOB's 
inability to inspect those firms included in the majority of the 
potential Commission-Identified Issuers' Item 3 (for Form 20-F filers) 
and Item 1A (for Form 10-K filers) discussion of risk factors.\44\ Such 
disclosures are readily

[[Page 17536]]

accessible using the keyword search functionality on the Commission's 
EDGAR website.\45\ In addition, similar identification of registrants 
whose independent auditors were not fully inspected by the PCAOB due to 
limitations and restrictions imposed by authorities in foreign 
jurisdictions has historically been available via the PCAOB's dedicated 
``Public Companies that are Audit Clients of PCAOB-Registered Firms 
from Non-U.S. Jurisdictions where the PCAOB is Denied Access to Conduct 
Inspections'' web page.\46\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \44\ Staff conducted a review of annual report disclosures using 
a combination of Intelligize searches and a manual review of select 
filings of Forms 10-K and 20-F. Highly similar language describing 
the potential risks associated with the PCAOB's inability to conduct 
inspections appeared across at least 65% of annual reports filed 
within the same year, including reviewed periods that predate the 
initial introduction of the HFCA Act legislation in 2019. As no 
single audit firm currently serves more than, at maximum, 20% of 
potential Commission-Identified Issuers, the inclusion of standard 
disclosures across registrants does not appear to be attributable to 
the practices of any individual audit firm. See infra note 53 for a 
description of the sample identification methodology.
    \45\ Available at https://www.sec.gov/edgar/ search/.
    \46\ Available at https://pcaobus.org/oversight/international/denied-access-to-inspections.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Under the amendments, Commission-Identified Foreign Issuers will 
also be required to disclose the presence and identity of any official 
of the CCP who is a member of its board of directors in addition to the 
percentage of the shares of the issuer owned by governmental entities 
in the foreign jurisdiction in which the issuer is incorporated or 
otherwise organized and whether governmental entities in the applicable 
foreign jurisdiction with respect to that registered public accounting 
firm have a controlling financial interest with respect to the issuer. 
At present, some of this information may be elicited by Form 10-K 
disclosure requirements \47\ or Form 20-F disclosure requirements.\48\ 
Because Form 10-K, Part III disclosures may be incorporated by 
reference from the registrant's definitive proxy statement if filed 
within 120 days of the related Form 10-K fiscal year end, or 
alternatively filed as a Form 10-K amendment by the same 120 day 
deadline, such disclosures are not currently uniformly present in the 
annual report filings of the potentially affected issuers. Moreover, 
there are currently no requirements that such disclosures must include 
the political party affiliation of those responsible for registrants' 
management and oversight, including but not limited to members of the 
board. Nor is there a requirement to systematically disclose the 
identity and ownership stake of any person or group of persons--
including government entities--who directly or indirectly acquire or 
have beneficial ownership of less than five percent of a class of a 
Commission-Identified Issuer's securities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \47\ See 17 CFR 229.401 (Item 401 of Regulation S-K), 17 CFR 
229.403 (Item 403 of Regulation S-K), and 17 CFR 229.404 (Item 404 
of Regulation S-K), required under Items 10, 12 and 13 of Form 10-K. 
Item 401 of Regulation S-K requires disclosure relating to the 
identification of directors and a brief description of their 
business experience; Item 403 of Regulation S-K requires disclosure 
with respect to any person or group that beneficially owns more than 
five percent of any class of the registrant's voting securities, as 
well as ownership information of executive officers and directors of 
the registrant; and Item 404 of Regulation S-K requires disclosure 
of transactions between the registrant and related persons, such as 
officers, directors and significant shareholders.
    \48\ See Items 6 and 7 of Form 20-F. Item 6 of Form 20-F 
requires disclosure relating to the identification and share 
ownership of directors and senior management; Item 7 of Form 20-F 
requires disclosure with respect to beneficial owners of more than 
five percent of any class of the registrant's voting securities, 
disclosure with respect to related party transactions, as well as 
disclosure of whether the company is directly or indirectly owned or 
controlled by another corporation or foreign government and the 
nature of that control.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Finally, under the amendments, Commission-Identified Foreign 
Issuers will be required to state whether the articles of incorporation 
of the issuer (or equivalent organizing document) contains any charter 
of the CCP, including the text of any such charter. While periodic 
reporting requirements currently instruct registrants to include a 
complete copy of the articles of incorporation and bylaws as an exhibit 
to the annual report,\49\ there are no requirements to identify the 
political or textual origins of any portion of a registrant's articles 
of incorporation. In practice, given that a registrant may simply 
indicate in its annual report exhibit index that such articles are 
incorporated by reference,\50\ few filers include the full text of such 
articles, bylaws, or charters in annual report filings after initially 
doing so at the time of IPO registration. Similarly, amended or revised 
versions of the registrant's articles of incorporation and bylaws are 
generally not included in the annual report filing, but are 
incorporated by reference as well. In these cases, locating the 
submission to which the registrant's complete and most recent version 
of its articles of incorporation are attached in their entirety 
requires a search and review of the registrant's current reports (on 
Forms 8-K or 6-K).\51\ Therefore, under current regulatory requirements 
and in practice, the majority of annual reports filed by potential 
Commission-Identified Foreign Issuers do not include, neither in part 
nor in complete form, the registrant's articles of incorporation, from 
which the reader might assess the presence or absence of text from the 
charter of the CCP.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \49\ See Item 19, Instruction 1 of Form 20-F and 17 CFR 
229.601(b)(3)(i).
    \50\ See 17 CFR 240.12b-23(c).
    \51\ The requirement to submit a Form 6-K in such cases by 
registrants that use Form 20-F to file annual reports depends upon 
the current reporting requirements of the relevant foreign 
jurisdiction. Because potential Commission-Identified Issuers 
domiciled, incorporated, or organized in China are required by 
Chapter 5 Article 27 of the Regulations of the People's Republic of 
China on Administration of Company Registration to file a complete 
copy of the revised articles within 30 days of such changes, a 
similar requirement to promptly furnish a Form 6-K including the 
complete revised articles of incorporation also applies. This 
document may then be incorporated by reference in the registrant's 
subsequent annual reports. Analogous requirements for registrants 
using domestic forms are outlined in Form 8-K, Item 5.03.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Affected Parties \52\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \52\ As noted above, the amendments may accelerate responses to 
other aspects of the HFCA Act, such as switching audit firms or 
exiting the U.S. markets altogether. These responses could impact 
parties beyond those identified below (e.g., audit firms). For 
purposes of this economic analysis, we focus on those parties 
affected by the discrete aspects of the HFCA Act being implemented 
in this rulemaking.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

a. Registrants
    Registrants subject to periodic reporting requirements under the 
Exchange Act will not be affected by the amendments unless and until 
they are Commission-Identified Issuers. Commission identification of 
such issuers is in turn contingent upon initial identification of 
affected registered public accounting firms that are retained by 
registrants with periodic disclosure obligations. Based upon a review 
of such registrants in calendar year 2020, we identified 273 
registrants for whom future identification as a Commission-Identified 
Issuer could be possible on the basis of current facts and 
circumstances.\53\ Of these potential Commission-Identified Issuers 
candidates, 18.2 percent filed annual disclosures using Form 10-K while 
78.2 percent are Form 20-F filers. No filings submitted by potential 
candidates were made using Forms 40-F or N-CSR. Among filers, 
approximately 22 percent were incorporated in the United States while 
78 percent were incorporated in foreign jurisdictions, including 4.8 
percent who self-disclosed to be state-

[[Page 17537]]

owned enterprises. These registrants' securities are either listed on a 
national exchange (88.7 percent), OTC-listed (9.9 percent), or report 
no U.S. listing (1.5 percent).\54\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \53\ Analysis is based on staff review of data obtained from the 
PCAOB (see supra note 46), Audit Analytics, manual review of all 
annual reports filed by foreign issuers using Forms 20-F, 40-F, or 
an amendment thereto in calendar year 2020, and review of securities 
registered in calendar year 2020 by foreign issuers. This analysis 
may potentially be viewed as an upper bound on the future number of 
registrants that may be affected by the HFCA requirements as clients 
of those firms previously identified by the PCAOB.
    \54\ Using a more conservative approach that looked only to 
registrants with at least one annual report filed after the 
introduction of the HFCA Act, we further estimated that in calendar 
year 2020, 194 registrants submitted an annual report (Form 10-K, 
20-F, or an amendment) whose auditor was previously identified by 
the PCAOB (see supra note 46) as a registered firm from a non-U.S. 
jurisdiction where necessary access to conduct oversight was denied 
due to a position taken by local authorities. Based on our 
historical analysis of these registrants, 18 percent submitted 
annual reports using a domestic form while 82 percent and 0 percent 
submitted their annual reports via foreign filings Form 20-F and 
Form 40-F respectively. Based on the same population of registrants, 
we estimate that approximately three percent of potentially affected 
registrants disclosed their securities as listed on two or more 
foreign exchanges, approximately nine percent listed on only one 
foreign exchange, while approximately 79 percent only disclosed 
listing on a U.S. national exchange. Of these registrants, 13 (six 
percent) self-identified in their 2020 disclosures as state-owned 
enterprises.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

b. Investors
    The amendments may impact both current investors in affected 
registrants as well as potential investors that may consider investing 
in these registrants in the future. As mentioned above, at least some 
of the information elicited by the required disclosures is likely to 
already be available to investors through various existing channels but 
at varying costs. As such, we expect that the required disclosures are 
likely to affect mostly retail investors who directly invest or 
consider investing in affected registrants since it may be more costly 
for these investors to obtain such information absent the required 
disclosures. Institutional or other sophisticated investors may also be 
impacted by the amendments; however, we expect that such impact might 
be limited given their resources to obtain the required information 
from other sources, when such sources are available.

C. Economic Effects

1. Benefits and Costs of HFCA Act Disclosure Requirements
    For Commission-Identified Foreign Issuers, the amendments will 
require specific disclosures to be made in these registrants' annual 
reports.\55\ In general, as discussed above, the required disclosures 
elicit information that the academic literature shows is value-relevant 
to investors. As such, we expect the required disclosures to be 
beneficial to investors since they are likely to reduce search costs 
when the information in the required disclosure is otherwise available 
through other sources or existing disclosures, and also potentially 
provide investors with information about aspects of these registrants' 
governance characteristics that otherwise might not be available or 
relatively costly to obtain. We do not expect significant compliance 
costs for Commission-Identified Foreign Issuers given that these 
registrants likely already possess the information required by the 
amendment; however, registrants may incur additional compliance costs 
if the required information is not readily accessible to them or needs 
to be formatted for the required disclosure.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \55\ See supra Section II. Disclosure Requirements for a 
detailed description of the disclosure requirements mandated by 
Section 3 of the HFCA Act.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

a. Investors
    The amendments will require disclosure that a registered public 
accounting firm that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate 
completely because of a position taken by an authority in the foreign 
jurisdiction has issued an audit report for the registrant. The 
disclosure will provide transparency about the inspection status of the 
engaged audit firm. As discussed above, the academic literature 
provides evidence that the PCAOB's oversight has led to improvements in 
audit quality and financial reporting quality, for both domestic and 
foreign issuers. The inability of the PCAOB to inspect the auditors of 
these registrants could generate uncertainty regarding their financial 
reporting quality. Thus, to the extent this information is new to 
investors,\56\ we expect the specific required disclosure to 
potentially facilitate investors' capital allocation decisions. We 
further expect that the presentation of such information in a 
standardized form in the annual report is likely to be helpful to 
investors by reducing their search costs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \56\ See supra Section IV.B.1 for a description of current 
practice and regulatory requirements regarding disclosure of the 
registrant's auditor inspection status.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The amendments will require disclosure of the percentage of the 
shares of the registrant owned by a government in the foreign 
jurisdiction. As discussed above, government ownership is information 
that is likely to facilitate investors' capital allocation decisions. 
For example, disclosure of government ownership may allow investors to 
better assess potential political risks/effects related to government 
ownership in the foreign jurisdiction that may influence the value of 
their investment. These benefits would be limited to the extent that 
affected registrants already provide disclosure relevant to assessing 
such risks.
    In addition to the disclosure of ownership though equity holdings, 
the amendments will require affected registrants to disclose whether a 
governmental entity has a controlling financial interest in the 
registrant. We expect such disclosure may benefit investors as it could 
provide information about other mechanisms, besides direct equity 
ownership, such as control through a pyramidal ownership structure that 
might allow a governmental entity to influence registrants' operational 
and other decisions, thus providing additional insight into potential 
risks to investors that might arise from such control/ownership 
structures.\57\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \57\ See, e.g., Jesse Fried & Ehud Kamar, Alibaba: A Case Study 
of Synthetic Control, ECGI Working Paper Series in Law, Paper No 
533/2020 (2020) (concluding that control of a firm can be exerted 
not only though equity, but rather a mixture of employment, 
contractual, and commercial arrangements).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The amendments also require disclosure of board members' 
affiliations with the CCP and whether the articles of incorporation of 
the registrant (or equivalent organizing document) includes any charter 
of the CCP, including the text of any such charter. These disclosures 
will enhance existing information on the composition of the board and 
could increase insight into its quality and the related consequences 
for firm value. One study shows that the degree of a board's political 
affiliation in China is related to firm value, and this varies based on 
facts and circumstances.\58\ For example, political affiliation of 
members of the board may imply that the incentives of such board 
members do not align with shareholders' interests, which in turn may 
affect registrants' decisions with potentially negative consequence for 
the registrants' value. Under different circumstances, politically 
connected board members may facilitate the execution of financing 
transactions for the registrant. To the extent that these disclosures 
may benefit investors by facilitating their efforts to evaluate 
characteristics of registrants that may have an impact on the value of 
their investments, these specific disclosures

[[Page 17538]]

may facilitate investors' capital allocation decisions and potentially 
increase investor protection.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \58\ See Lihong Wang, Protection or expropriation: Politically 
connected independent directors in China, 55 J. Bank. Fin. 92 (2015) 
(using a sample of Chinese listed firms over the 2003-2012 period, 
the study finds that the presence of politically connected 
independent directors is related to increased firm value for private 
firms, but related to lower firm value for state-owned enterprises 
(``SOEs''). The study also finds increased related-party 
transactions for Chinese listed firms with politically connected 
independent directors).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

b. Registrants
    The required disclosures are likely to impose some compliance costs 
on Commission-Identified Foreign Issuers. We do not expect these 
compliance costs to be significant since these registrants likely 
already possess the information required by the amendments. However, to 
the extent that such information is not readily accessible or needs to 
be formatted to comply with the required disclosure, we expect 
potential additional costs to these registrants.\59\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \59\ For the purpose of the Paperwork Reduction Act, we estimate 
that affected registrants will incur on average one burden hour to 
prepare and review the information needed for the HFCA Act Section 3 
disclosure requirements; see infra Section V.C.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The required disclosures may impact the cost of capital for some 
affected registrants. As discussed above, empirical evidence suggests 
that the information elicited by the required disclosures is, in 
general, related to potential risks and more broadly to firm value.\60\ 
We discuss the potential impact of the required disclosures on affected 
registrants' cost of capital further below, but note that the magnitude 
of any such impact is likely to be moderated depending on the extent 
information is otherwise available to investors.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \60\ See supra section IV.A.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The required disclosure regarding the use of a non-inspected firm 
to audit the registrant's annual report, which will now be required in 
a standardized manner, may lead investors to re-evaluate potential 
risks related to financial reporting quality due to the inability of 
the PCAOB to inspect the auditors of these registrants. Academic 
literature shows that PCAOB oversight is broadly related to 
improvements of audit quality, and also investor perceptions of such 
audit quality.\61\ As described above, many registrants already 
disclose, and also provide a discussion of, the risks or decreased 
benefits associated with using a non-inspected auditor.\62\ Given the 
extent to which information specifically required in the new 
disclosures overlaps with disclosures already observed in practice, in 
addition to the information being available from other sources such as 
the PCAOB, we expect the impact of these specific required disclosures 
on affected registrants' cost of capital to be small.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \61\ See supra section IV.A.
    \62\ See supra section IV.B.1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Section 3 of the HFCA Act also requires registrants to disclose 
information in a standardized manner in annual reports about their 
ownership and control structures, including the magnitude of direct 
equity ownership by a government in non-cooperating foreign 
jurisdictions and the degree of control a government in the non-
cooperating jurisdiction may exert on the registrant through channels 
other than ownership. As described above, government ownership and 
control is likely to have an impact on the registrant's decision-making 
processes, and such impact is likely to vary under facts and 
circumstances.\63\ The required disclosures may affect registrants' 
cost of capital insofar as the information disclosed triggers a re-
assessment of the affected registrant's exposure to governmental 
ownership or control.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \63\ See supra section IV.A.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The amendments also will require registrants to disclose 
information about potential additional links to the CCP. Such 
disclosure is likely to be informative of the registrant's governance, 
and may also lead investors to re-assess potential political risks that 
may not have been previously known through existing registrants' 
disclosures. For example, such links between the registrant and the CCP 
may indicate increased political influence on registrants' decision-
making processes and consequent impacts on registrants' value. While 
some, but not all, of the information in the required disclosures may 
already be publicly available through disclosures in forms other than 
in annual reports, the content of such disclosures may not be 
standardized across registrants. We expect these specific disclosures 
may potentially impact registrants' cost of capital, particularly for 
registrants about which such information is not otherwise known by the 
market.
2. Benefits and Costs of HFCA Act Submission Requirement
    The amendments implementing the submission requirement of Section 
104(i)(1)(B) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (as added by Section 2 of the 
HFCA Act) provide that a Commission-Identified Issuer that is not owned 
or controlled by a foreign governmental entity in a foreign 
jurisdiction that prevents PCAOB inspections must submit documentation 
to the Commission that establishes that the registrant is not so owned 
or controlled. As discussed above, the amendments specify that if an 
affected registrant is owned or controlled by a foreign governmental 
entity, it will not be required to submit such documentation. We 
estimate in the baseline that a large majority of current registrants 
that are potential future Commission-Identified Issuers are also 
foreign issuers that will be subject to the disclosures required by 
Section 3 of the HFCA Act. Therefore, we expect the submission 
requirement to serve as a complement to these required disclosures.
a. Investors
    We anticipate that requiring Commission-Identified Issuers to 
provide documentation to support a lack of foreign control will provide 
further reassurance to investors that the registrants' disclosures in 
this regard are materially accurate and complete. In particular, 
because the submission requirement generally would apply to those 
Commission-Identified Issuers who otherwise do not disclose that they 
are owned or controlled by a foreign governmental entity, this 
requirement will provide some reassurance to investors that such 
control does not exist. We believe that greater certainty about which 
Commission-Identified Issuers lack governmental ownership and control 
may improve investors' assessments of the risks of investing in 
Commission-Identified Issuers' securities. If the submitted 
documentation is made publicly available, we expect the reassurance 
benefit to be larger than if the submission is retained non-publicly by 
the Commission. Because affected registrants will have flexibility to 
determine the specific types of documentation to submit to the 
Commission, if the submitted documentation is made publicly available, 
we expect the magnitude of the reassurance benefit to depend on the 
nature of information issuers submit. We generally expect this 
reassurance benefit to be limited given the HFCA Act's required Section 
3 disclosure and other information about ownership and control required 
by existing Commission rules.\64\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \64\ See supra section IV.B.1 for a description of current 
regulatory requirements regarding disclosure of ownership and 
control more generally.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Because we expect the submission requirement to impose (on average) 
only minor compliance costs on affected registrants and no other 
significant costs, we also do not generally expect any significant 
negative effects on investors from this requirement, such as a 
reduction in the prices of affected registrants' securities they 
currently own.
b. Registrants
    Commission-Identified Issuers who lack ownership or control by a 
governmental entity in the foreign

[[Page 17539]]

jurisdiction of the registered public accounting firm that the PCAOB is 
unable to inspect or investigate completely will incur some direct 
compliance costs related to producing the documentation they will be 
required to submit to the Commission. The magnitude of these compliance 
costs will depend on how easily the affected registrants can produce 
documentation to satisfy the submission requirement. The amendments do 
not specify particular types of documentation that can or must be 
submitted to satisfy this requirement. Affected registrants will thus 
have flexibility to determine how best to establish that they are not 
owned or controlled by a foreign governmental entity. This should help 
limit compliance costs, as registrants will be able to produce 
documentation that is suited to their particular circumstances. At the 
same time, at least as an initial matter, uncertainty about the scope 
of the requirement could lead some registrants to seek additional 
advice from attorneys and other advisers, which could marginally 
increase compliance costs. Overall, because we expect that affected 
registrants will have information readily available about their 
ownership structures and controlling parties, we expect the direct 
compliance costs associated with this requirement will be minor.\65\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \65\ For the purpose of the Paperwork Reduction Act, we estimate 
that affected registrants will incur on average one burden hour to 
prepare and review the information needed for the HFCA Act Section 2 
submission requirements; see infra Section V.C.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Impact on Efficiency, Competition, and Capital Formation
    As discussed above, the required disclosures may provide new or 
more easily accessible information about whether registrants have 
retained non-inspected registered auditors and whether such registrants 
are owned or controlled by governmental entities of the foreign 
jurisdictions that prevent PCAOB inspections. To the extent this 
disclosed information is new or reduces search costs, we expect it 
could potentially reduce information asymmetries in securities markets, 
thereby improving price efficiency and helping investors achieve more 
efficient portfolio allocations. Overall, we believe that any 
efficiency gains will be modest since the potential increase in 
informational content and reduction in search costs to investors is 
likely to be limited given existing disclosures.
    To the extent the amendments will reduce information asymmetries, 
affected registrants may experience a change in cost of capital (either 
a reduction or an increase is possible, depending on circumstances), 
which may in turn affect capital formation. However, similar to any 
effects on efficiency, we expect such capital formation effects to be 
small in aggregate. Likewise, we do not expect the amendments to 
significantly impact overall competition, based on the expected low 
compliance costs for registrants and the expected limited incremental 
impact on investors' information environment. However, we do not rule 
out that there could be instances where the required disclosures 
provide new information about some registrants that could potentially 
impact (either positively or negatively) their individual competitive 
situation due to investors' reassessment of such registrants' risk and 
prospects.

V. Paperwork Reduction Act

A. Background

    Certain provisions of Form 10-K and Form 20-F that will be affected 
by the interim final amendments contain ``collection of information'' 
requirements within the meaning of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(``PRA'').\66\ The Commission is submitting the interim final 
amendments to the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') for review 
in accordance with the PRA.\67\ The titles for the collections of 
information are:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \66\ 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. As noted in Section IV above, based 
on recent Form 40-F filings, no Form 40-F registrants reported 
having retained a registered public accounting firm located in a 
foreign jurisdiction, and therefore we estimate that no Form 40-F 
registrants will be subject to the requirements of the interim final 
amendments upon their adoption. Accordingly, we are not making any 
revisions to the PRA burden estimates for Form 40-F at this time. 
Additionally, as noted above, based on recent Form N-CEN filings, no 
registered investment company reported having retained a registered 
public accounting firm located in a foreign jurisdiction, and 
therefore we estimate that no registered investment companies will 
be subject to the requirements of the interim final amendments upon 
their adoption. Accordingly, we are not making any revisions to the 
PRA burden estimates for Form N-CSR at this time. See supra note 33.
    \67\ 44 U.S.C. 3507(d) and 5 CFR 1320.11.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ``Form 10-K'' (OMB Control No. 3235-0063); and
    ``Form 20-F'' (OMB Control No. 3235-0288).
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information requirement unless it 
displays a currently valid OMB control number. Compliance with the 
information collections is mandatory. Responses to the information 
collections are not kept confidential and there is no mandatory 
retention period for the information disclosed. The affected forms were 
adopted under the Exchange Act and set forth the disclosure 
requirements for annual reports filed by registrants to help investors 
make informed investment decisions. The hours and costs associated with 
preparing and filing the forms constitute reporting and cost burdens 
imposed by each collection of information.

B. Summary of the Amendments

    As described in more detail above, we are adopting interim final 
amendments to implement the disclosure and submission requirements of 
the HFCA Act. The amendments will require certain disclosure from 
foreign issuers relating to foreign jurisdictions that prevent PCAOB 
inspections and require all registrants to submit documentation to the 
Commission establishing that such a covered issuer is not owned or 
controlled by a governmental entity in that foreign jurisdiction.

C. Burden and Cost Estimates Related to the Amendment

    We anticipate that new disclosure and submission requirements will 
increase the burdens and costs for these registrants. We derived our 
burden hour and cost estimates by estimating the average amount of time 
it would take a registrant to prepare and review the required 
disclosure and submission, as well as the average hourly rate for 
outside professionals who assist with such preparation. In addition, 
our burden estimates are based on several assumptions.
    For the HFCA Act Section 3 disclosure requirements we estimated the 
number of affected registrants by determining the number of foreign 
issuer registrants that retained registered public accounting firms 
that issued an audit report and are located in a jurisdiction where 
obstacles to PCAOB inspections exist. For the Section 104(i)(1)(B) of 
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (as added by Section 2 of the HFCA Act) 
submission requirements we estimated the number of affected registrants 
by determining the number of registrants that retained registered 
public accounting firms that issued an audit report and are located in 
a jurisdiction where obstacles to PCAOB inspections exist. Based on 
these estimates, for purposes of the PRA, we estimate that there will 
be:
     No affected Form 10-K filers for the HFCA Act Section 3 
disclosure requirements and 55 affected filers for the Section 
104(i)(1)(B) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act submission requirement; and
     Two hundred twenty affected Form 20-F filers for the HFCA 
Act Section 3

[[Page 17540]]

disclosure requirements and 206 affected filers for the Section 
104(i)(1)(B) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act submission requirement.\68\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \68\ See supra Section IV.B.2.A. Based on the data and analysis 
described in Section IV above, for purposes of the PRA we estimate 
that approximately 275 registrants may be affected by the rules, of 
which we estimate 20 percent are U.S. registrants that file on Form 
10-K (55 registrants) and 80 percent are foreign issuers that file 
on Form 20-F (220 registrants). For purposes of the HFCA Act Section 
3 disclosure requirement, we estimate that only foreign filers 
filing on Form 20-F will be required to provide the disclosure (220 
registrants). For purposes of the Section 104(i)(1)(B) of the 
Sarbanes-Oxley Act submission requirement, we estimate that 
approximately five percent of the affected registrants are state-
owned entities and will not be required to prepare the submission. 
As a result, we estimate that U.S. registrants that file on Form 10-
K (55 registrants) and foreign issuers that file on Form 20-F but 
are not state-owned entities (206) will be required to provide the 
submission.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Commission-Identified Issuers will generally have information 
readily available about their audit arrangements, ownership structures, 
and controlling parties. Therefore we estimate that the average 
incremental burden for an affected registrant to prepare the submission 
would be 1 hour and for an affected registrant that is a foreign issuer 
to prepare the disclosure would be 1 hour. These estimates represent 
the average burdens for all affected registrants, both large and small. 
In deriving our estimates, we recognize that the burdens will likely 
vary among individual registrants based on a number of factors, 
including the size and complexity of their operations. We believe that 
some registrants will experience costs in excess of this average and 
some registrants may experience less than the average costs.
    The table below shows the total annual compliance burden, in hours 
and in costs, of the collection of information resulting from the 
interim final amendments.\69\ The burden estimates were calculated by 
multiplying the estimated number of responses by the estimated average 
amount of time it would take a registrant to prepare and review the 
required information. The portion of the burden carried by outside 
professionals is reflected as a cost, while the portion of the burden 
carried by the registrant internally is reflected in hours. For 
purposes of the PRA, we estimate that 75 percent of the burden of 
preparation of Form 10-K and Form 20-F is carried by the registrant 
internally and that 25 percent of the burden of preparation is carried 
by outside professionals retained by the registrant at an average cost 
of $400 per hour.\70\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \69\ The table's estimated number of responses aggregates the 
responses for both the disclosure requirement and the submission 
requirement. Some registrants will be counted twice, once for each 
response. For convenience, the estimated hour and cost burdens in 
the table have been rounded to the nearest whole number.
    \70\ We recognize that the costs of retaining outside 
professionals may vary depending on the nature of the professional 
services, but for purposes of this PRA analysis we estimate that 
such costs will be an average of $400 per hour. This estimate is 
based on consultations with several registrants, law firms and other 
persons who regularly assist registrants in preparing and filing 
periodic reports with the Commission.

                                        Table 1--Incremental Paperwork Burden Under the Interim Final Amendments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                             Estimated
                                                             number of      Incremental        Total                       Professional    Professional
                                                             affected      burden hours/    incremental     Company 75%         25%            costs
                                                             responses         form        burden hours
                                                                     (A)             (B)     (C) = (A) *     (D) = (C) *     (E) = (C) *     (F) = (E) *
                                                                                                     (B)            0.75            0.25            $400
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Form 10-K (submission)..................................              55               1              55              41              14          $5,600
Form 20-F (submission)..................................             206               1             206             155              52          20,800
Form 20-F (disclosure)..................................             220               1             220             165              55          22,000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Request for Comment

    We request comments in order to evaluate: (1) Whether the 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
the functions of the agency, including whether the information would 
have practical utility; (2) the accuracy of our estimate of the burden 
of the collection of information; (3) whether there are ways to enhance 
the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be collected; 
and (4) whether there are ways to minimize the burden of the collection 
of information on those who are to respond, including through the use 
of automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology.\71\ Specifically, we request comment on the estimated 
number or percentage of affected registrants.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \71\ We request comment pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(B).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Any member of the public may direct to us any comments concerning 
the accuracy of these burden estimates and any suggestions for reducing 
these burdens. Persons who desire to submit comments on the collection 
of information requirements should direct their comments to the Office 
of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer for the Securities 
and Exchange Commission, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 
Washington, DC 20503, and send a copy of the comments to Vanessa A. 
Countryman, Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street 
NE, Washington, DC 20549, with reference to File No. S7-03-21. Requests 
for materials submitted to the OMB by us with regard to these 
collections of information should be in writing, refer to File No. S7-
03-21 and be submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, 
Office of FOIA Services, 100 F Street NE, Washington DC 20549.
    Because the OMB is required to make a decision concerning the 
collections of information between 30 and 60 days after publication, a 
comment to the OMB is best assured of having its full effect if the OMB 
receives it within 30 days of publication.

VI. Statutory Authority

    The amendments contained in this release are being adopted under 
the authority set forth in Sections 2 and 3 of the HFCA Act, Section 
104 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Sections 3, 12, 13, 15(d), and 23(a) of 
the Exchange Act, and Sections 8(b), 24(a), 30(a), and 38(a) of the 
Investment Company Act.

List of Subjects

17 CFR Part 249

    Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Securities.

17 CFR Parts 274

    Investment companies, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, 
Securities.

[[Page 17541]]

Text of Rule Amendments

    In accordance with the foregoing, the Commission amends title 17, 
chapter II of the Code of Federal Regulations as follows:

PART 249--FORMS, SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

0
1. The general authority citation for part 249 and sectional authority 
citation for Sec.  249.220f are revised to read as follows:

    Authority: 15 U.S.C. 78a et seq. and 7201 et seq.; 12 U.S.C. 
5461 et seq.; 18 U.S.C. 1350; Sec. 953(b) Pub. L. 111-203, 124 Stat. 
1904; Sec. 102(a)(3) Pub. L. 112-106, 126 Stat. 309 (2012), Sec. 107 
Pub. L. 112-106, 126 Stat. 313 (2012), Sec. 72001 Pub. L. 114-94, 
129 Stat. 1312 (2015), and secs. 2 and 3 Pub. L. 116-222, 134 Stat. 
1063 (2020), unless otherwise noted.
    Section 249.220f is also issued under secs. 3(a), 202, 208, 302, 
306(a), 401(a), 401(b), 406 and 407, Pub. L. 107-204, 116 Stat. 745, 
and secs. 2 and 3, Pub. L. 116-222, 134 Stat. 1063.
* * * * *

0
2. Amend Form 20-F (referenced in Sec.  249.220f) by adding new Item 
16I. to read as follows:

    Note:  The text of Form 20-F does not, and this amendment will 
not, appear in the Code of Federal Regulations.

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

FORM 20-F

* * * * *

PART II

* * * * *
Item 16I. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent 
Inspections.
    (a) A registrant identified by the Commission pursuant to Section 
104(i)(2)(A) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (15 U.S.C. 
7214(i)(2)(A)) as having retained, for the preparation of the audit 
report on its financial statements included in the Form 20-F, a 
registered public accounting firm that has a branch or office that is 
located in a foreign jurisdiction and that the Public Company 
Accounting Oversight Board has determined it is unable to inspect or 
investigate completely because of a position taken by an authority in 
the foreign jurisdiction must electronically submit to the Commission 
on a supplemental basis documentation that establishes that the 
registrant is not owned or controlled by a governmental entity in the 
foreign jurisdiction. The registrant must submit this documentation on 
or before the due date for this form. A registrant that is owned or 
controlled by a foreign governmental entity is not required to submit 
such documentation.
    (b) A registrant that is a foreign issuer, as defined in 17 CFR 
240.3b-4, identified by the Commission pursuant to Section 104(i)(2)(A) 
of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (15 U.S.C. 7214(i)(2)(A)) as having 
retained, for the preparation of the audit report on its financial 
statements included in the Form 20-F, a registered public accounting 
firm that has a branch or office that is located in a foreign 
jurisdiction and that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has 
determined it is unable to inspect or investigate completely because of 
a position taken by an authority in the foreign jurisdiction, for each 
year in which the registrant is so identified, must disclose:
    (1) That, for the immediately preceding annual financial statement 
period, a registered public accounting firm that the PCAOB was unable 
to inspect or investigate completely, because of a position taken by an 
authority in the foreign jurisdiction, issued an audit report for the 
registrant;
    (2) The percentage of shares of the registrant owned by 
governmental entities in the foreign jurisdiction in which the 
registrant is incorporated or otherwise organized;
    (3) Whether governmental entities in the applicable foreign 
jurisdiction with respect to that registered public accounting firm 
have a controlling financial interest with respect to the registrant;
    (4) The name of each official of the Chinese Communist Party who is 
a member of the board of directors of the registrant or the operating 
entity with respect to the registrant; and
    (5) Whether the articles of incorporation of the registrant (or 
equivalent organizing document) contains any charter of the Chinese 
Communist Party, including the text of any such charter.
Instruction to Item 16I:
    Item 16I only applies to annual reports, and not to registration 
statements on Form 20-F.
* * * * *
0
3. Amend Form 40-F (referenced in Sec.  249.240f) by adding new 
paragraph B.18. to read as follows:

    Note: The text of Form 40-F does not, and this amendment will 
not, appear in the Code of Federal Regulations.

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

FORM 40-F

* * * * *

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

* * * * *

B. Information To Be Filed on This Form

    (18) Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent 
Inspections.
    (a) A registrant identified by the Commission pursuant to Section 
104(i)(2)(A) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (15 U.S.C. 
7214(i)(2)(A)) as having retained, for the preparation of the audit 
report on its financial statements included in the Form 40-F, a 
registered public accounting firm that has a branch or office that is 
located in a foreign jurisdiction and that the Public Company 
Accounting Oversight Board has determined it is unable to inspect or 
investigate completely because of a position taken by an authority in 
the foreign jurisdiction must electronically submit to the Commission 
on a supplemental basis documentation that establishes that the 
registrant is not owned or controlled by a governmental entity in the 
foreign jurisdiction. The registrant must submit this documentation on 
or before the due date for this form. A registrant that is owned or 
controlled by a foreign governmental entity is not required to submit 
such documentation.
    (b) A registrant that is a foreign issuer, as defined in 17 CFR 
240.3b-4, identified by the Commission pursuant to Section 104(i)(2)(A) 
of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (15 U.S.C. 7214(i)(2)(A)) as having 
retained, for the preparation of the audit report on its financial 
statements included in the Form 40-F, a registered public accounting 
firm that has a branch or office that is located in a foreign 
jurisdiction and that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has 
determined it is unable to inspect or investigate completely because of 
a position taken by an authority in the foreign jurisdiction, for each 
year in which the registrant is so identified, must disclose:
    (i) That, for the immediately preceding annual financial statement 
period, a registered public accounting firm that the PCAOB was unable 
to inspect or investigate completely, because of a position taken by an 
authority in the foreign jurisdiction, issued an audit report for the 
registrant;
    (ii) The percentage of shares of the registrant owned by 
governmental entities in the foreign jurisdiction in

[[Page 17542]]

which the registrant is incorporated or otherwise organized;
    (iii) Whether governmental entities in the applicable foreign 
jurisdiction with respect to that registered public accounting firm 
have a controlling financial interest with respect to the registrant;
    (iv) The name of each official of the Chinese Communist Party who 
is a member of the board of directors of the registrant or the 
operating entity with respect to the registrant; and
    (v) Whether the articles of incorporation of the registrant (or 
equivalent organizing document) contains any charter of the Chinese 
Communist Party, including the text of any such charter.

     Note to paragraph (18) of General Instruction B: Instruction 
(B)(18) only applies to annual reports, and not to registration 
statements on Form 40-F.

* * * * *
0
4. Amend Form 10-K (referenced in Sec.  249.310) by adding new Item 9C. 
to Part II to read as follows:

    Note: The text of Form 10-K does not, and this amendment will 
not, appear in the Code of Federal Regulations.

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

FORM 10-K

* * * * *

Part II

* * * * *
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent 
Inspections.
    (a) A registrant identified by the Commission pursuant to Section 
104(i)(2)(A) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (15 U.S.C. 
7214(i)(2)(A)) as having retained, for the preparation of the audit 
report on its financial statements included in the Form 10-K, a 
registered public accounting firm that has a branch or office that is 
located in a foreign jurisdiction and that the Public Company 
Accounting Oversight Board has determined it is unable to inspect or 
investigate completely because of a position taken by an authority in 
the foreign jurisdiction must electronically submit to the Commission 
on a supplemental basis documentation that establishes that the 
registrant is not owned or controlled by a governmental entity in the 
foreign jurisdiction. The registrant must submit this documentation on 
or before the due date for this form. A registrant that is owned or 
controlled by a foreign governmental entity is not required to submit 
such documentation.
    (b) A registrant that is a foreign issuer, as defined in 17 CFR 
240.3b-4, identified by the Commission pursuant to Section 104(i)(2)(A) 
of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (15 U.S.C. 7214(i)(2)(A)) as having 
retained, for the preparation of the audit report on its financial 
statements included in the Form 10-K, a registered public accounting 
firm that has a branch or office that is located in a foreign 
jurisdiction and that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has 
determined it is unable to inspect or investigate completely because of 
a position taken by an authority in the foreign jurisdiction, for each 
year in which the registrant is so identified, must disclose:
    (1) That, for the immediately preceding annual financial statement 
period, a registered public accounting firm that the PCAOB was unable 
to inspect or investigate completely, because of a position taken by an 
authority in the foreign jurisdiction, issued an audit report for the 
registrant;
    (2) The percentage of shares of the registrant owned by 
governmental entities in the foreign jurisdiction in which the 
registrant is incorporated or otherwise organized;
    (3) Whether governmental entities in the applicable foreign 
jurisdiction with respect to that registered public accounting firm 
have a controlling financial interest with respect to the registrant;
    (4) The name of each official of the Chinese Communist Party who is 
a member of the board of directors of the registrant or the operating 
entity with respect to the registrant; and
    (5) Whether the articles of incorporation of the registrant (or 
equivalent organizing document) contains any charter of the Chinese 
Communist Party, including the text of any such charter.
0
5. Amend Form N-CSR (referenced in Sec. Sec.  249.331 and 274.128) by 
adding new paragraphs (i) and (j) to Item 4 to read as follows:

    Note: The text of Form N-CSR does not, and this amendment will 
not, appear in the Code of Federal Regulations.

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, DC 20549

FORM N-CSR

* * * * *
Item 4. Principal Accountant Fees and Services
* * * * *
    (i) A registrant identified by the Commission pursuant to Section 
104(i)(2)(A) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (15 U.S.C. 
7214(i)(2)(A)), as having retained, for the preparation of the audit 
report on its financial statements included in the Form N-CSR, a 
registered public accounting firm that has a branch or office that is 
located in a foreign jurisdiction and that the Public Company 
Accounting Oversight Board has determined it is unable to inspect or 
investigate completely because of a position taken by an authority in 
the foreign jurisdiction must electronically submit to the Commission 
on a supplemental basis documentation that establishes that the 
registrant is not owned or controlled by a governmental entity in the 
foreign jurisdiction. The registrant must submit this documentation on 
or before the due date for this form. A registrant that is owned or 
controlled by a foreign governmental entity is not required to submit 
such documentation.
    (j) A registrant that is a foreign issuer, as defined in 17 CFR 
240.3b-4, identified by the Commission pursuant to Section 104(i)(2)(A) 
of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (15 U.S.C. 7214(i)(2)(A)), as having 
retained, for the preparation of the audit report on its financial 
statements included in the Form N-CSR, a registered public accounting 
firm that has a branch or office that is located in a foreign 
jurisdiction and that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has 
determined it is unable to inspect or investigate completely because of 
a position taken by an authority in the foreign jurisdiction, for each 
year in which the registrant is so identified, must disclose:
    (1) That, for the immediately preceding annual financial statement 
period, a registered public accounting firm that the PCAOB was unable 
to inspect or investigate completely, because of a position taken by an 
authority in the foreign jurisdiction, issued an audit report for the 
registrant;
    (2) The percentage of shares of the registrant owned by 
governmental entities in the foreign jurisdiction in which the 
registrant is incorporated or otherwise organized;
    (3) Whether governmental entities in the applicable foreign 
jurisdiction with respect to that registered public accounting firm 
have a controlling financial interest with respect to the registrant;
    (4) The name of each official of the Chinese Communist Party who is 
a member of the board of directors of the registrant or the operating 
entity with respect to the registrant; and

[[Page 17543]]

    (5) Whether the articles of incorporation of the registrant (or 
equivalent organizing document) contains any charter of the Chinese 
Communist Party, including the text of any such charter.
* * * * *

    By the Commission.

    Dated: March 18, 2021.
Vanessa A. Countryman,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2021-06292 Filed 4-2-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011-01-P