Securities and Exchange Commission 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Securities and Exchange Commission (``Commission'') is proposing amendments to Regulation S-P, which implements certain provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (``GLBA'') and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (``FCRA'') for entities regulated by the Commission. The proposed amendments would set forth more specific requirements for safeguarding information and responding to information security breaches, and broaden the scope of the information covered by Regulation S-P's safeguarding and disposal provisions. They also would extend the application of the disposal provisions to natural persons associated with brokers, dealers, investment advisers registered with the Commission (``registered investment advisers'') and transfer agents registered with the Commission (``registered transfer agents''), and would extend the application of the safeguarding provisions to registered transfer agents. Finally, the proposed amendments would permit a limited transfer of information to a nonaffiliated third party without the required notice and opt out when personnel move from one broker-dealer or registered investment adviser to another.

We are proposing a number of changes to our rules relating to foreign private issuers that are intended to improve the accessibility of the U.S. public capital markets to these issuers, as well as to enhance the information that is available to investors. These amendments are part of a series of initiatives that seek to address changes in our disclosure and other requirements applicable to foreign private issuers in light of market developments, new technologies and other matters in a manner that promotes investor protection, cross- border capital flows and the elimination of unnecessary barriers to our capital markets. We are proposing amendments that would enable foreign issuers to test their qualification to use the forms and rules available to foreign private issuers once a year, rather than continuously. We are also proposing amendments to change the deadline for annual reports filed by foreign private issuers and to eliminate an option under which foreign private issuers are permitted to omit segment data from their U.S. GAAP financial statements, and an amendment to the rule pertaining to going private transactions to reflect the new termination of reporting and deregistration rules for foreign private issuers. In addition, we are soliciting comment on proposals that would revise the annual report and registration statement forms used by foreign private issuers to improve certain disclosures provided in these forms.