Securities and Exchange Commission April 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') is revising its regulations with respect to the method by which hearing officers of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (``Board'' or ``PCAOB'') are appointed and removed from office. Specifically, the Commission is adopting a rule expressly requiring that the appointment or removal of a PCAOB hearing officer be subject to Commission approval.

We are adopting amendments to modernize and simplify certain disclosure requirements in Regulation S-K, and related rules and forms, in a manner that reduces the costs and burdens on registrants while continuing to provide all material information to investors. The amendments are also intended to improve the readability and navigability of disclosure documents and discourage repetition and disclosure of immaterial information. To provide for a consistent set of rules to govern incorporating information by reference and hyperlinking, we are also adopting parallel amendments to several rules and forms applicable to investment companies and investment advisers, including amendments that would require certain investment company filings to be submitted in HyperText Markup Language format.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the ``Commission'') adopted revisions to the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval System (``EDGAR'') Filer Manual (``EDGAR Filer Manual'' or ``Filer Manual'') and related rules. The EDGAR system is scheduled to be upgraded on March 11, 2019.