We’ve polled some of our in-house friends, and here’s what they’re saying about the practical issues they see – and the fears they have – so far with the SEC’s new EDGAR Next, which I blogged about recently:
- “EDGAR Next is going to be a beast and quite an eye-opener for companies like us who have relied on financial printers to handle their codes. An administrator will need to specifically approve individuals – or filing agents – to submit filings on their behalf. There is the hassle of keeping track and reapproving annually too. Just having a CIK and CCC will not be sufficient. In additional to having one’s own EDGAR credentials, one must be on the ‘approved list’ for the entity who actually makes the filings.”
- “Not sure what problem the SEC is trying to solve, but it will cost us a ton more money, time and education. And, at least for large companies, I don’t see much of a benefit. People in the real world are going to be affected by forcing each individual responsible for making filings to obtain their own EDGAR credentials.”
- “We are a company that does all of its filings in-house. I’ve started to map out the fairly lengthy series of adjustments necessary to comply with the new rules. But I fear that’s only the start because I’m sure there are things I haven’t thought of yet. None of my in-house friends have begun to ponder what to do so I feel like a pioneer.”
- “We occasionally self-file but mostly use a financial printer to file. On rare occasion, we have even used our law firm to make some Section 16 filings. I’m not sure we can afford the flexibility of using multiple filing sources going forward because of the complexity that seems to have been inserted into the process. Maybe I’m wrong but I think this is going to be difficult to figure out initially.”
- “How does this work for the third-party filing agents like printers and law firms that make Section 16 filings for large numbers of directors who serve on the boards of multiple unrelated companies? How do they keep the filings coordinated? It’s depressing because I’m worried there will be snafus and my insiders don’t look at me kindly when there is a problem making a filing on their behalf.”
- “One thing to bank on: We will inevitably have a few late filings when the new EDGAR becomes mandatory – and we won’t be the only one. I kind of despised Section 16 before. Now I truly despise it.”
Authored by
Broc Romanek