Draft EDGAR Filer Manual (Volume I) General Information (Version 33)

Implementation Date: June 2019

This draft Filer Manual, posted before Commission approval of potential regulatory changes in this release, is provided as a service to our filing community to assist filers, agents, and software developers in their preparation of responses to potential changes the staff anticipates. Since this is a draft manual, the SEC retains the right to change any part of the manual before the new system release is made final. In addition, the final EDGAR Filer Manual (Volume I) (Version 33) is subject to Commission approval and may be revised before approval or not approved at all. Similarly, the posting of the draft manual does not indicate Commission approval of any pending proposed changes relating to the potential changes reflected in the draft manual. The changes outlined in this draft manual, if approved, are scheduled to take effect on June 10, 2019 for non-rule based changes or on the rule effective date for changes related to SEC rules. See SEC Final Rules posted on the SEC’s Public Website for information on the rule effective date. The final version of the manual will be made available, if approved by the Commission, on or about June 10, 2019, on the SEC’s Public Website.

EDGAR Updates

On June 10, 2019, the following changes will be made to the EDGAR Filer Manual as part of EDGAR Release 19.2:

  • Effective June 10, 2019, an enhanced "Application for EDGAR Access (Form ID)" will be available on the EDGAR Filer Management Website. This can be accessed by selecting the 'Apply for EDGAR Access (New)' link on the home page of the EDGAR Filer Management Website. As part of the online version of the form:
    • Applicants will be able to save their Form ID application and then resume the application by restoring it at a later time.

    In addition, PDF attachments for "Application for EDGAR Access (Form ID)" and “Update Passphrase” will be validated. See Chapter 3 (Becoming an EDGAR Filer) of the "EDGAR Filer Manual, Volume I: General Information."

  • After June 30, 2019, EDGAR will no longer accept the following form types due to the Commission’s rescission of Form N-SAR (Release 33-10231): NSAR-A, NSAR-A/A, NSAR-AT, NSAR-AT/A, NSAR-B, NSAR-B/A, NSAR-BT, NSAR-BT/A, NSAR-U, NSAR-U/A, NT-NSAR, NT-NSAR/A, NTFNSAR, and NTFNSAR/A. In addition, “EDGAR Filer Manual, Volume III: N-SAR Supplement” will be rescinded and no longer available for download from https://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/edmanuals.htm.
  • In Commission Release 33-10618, certain disclosure requirements for Regulation S-K will be modernized and simplified. These changes will improve readability and navigability of disclosure documents, as well as discourage repetition and the disclosure of immaterial information. As a result of these changes:
    • Filers will be able to include cover tags within any Inline XBRL document set for submission forms that permit Inline XBRL. EDGAR will warn filers if any required cover tags are missing, nil, or empty in 10-K, 10-K/A, 10-KT, 10-KT/A, 10-Q, 10-Q/A, 10-QT, 10-QT/A, 8-K, 8-K/A, 8-K12B, 8-K12B/A, 8-K12G3, 8-K12G3/A, 8-K15D5, 8-K15D5/A, 20-F, 20-F/A, 40-F, and 40-F/A when these are submitted as Inline XBRL format.
    • Filers will be able to reference modules and segments constructed in either ASCII or HTML format in their HTML submission documents.

    See Chapter 5 (Constructing Attached Documents and Document Types), Chapter 6 (Interactive Data), and Appendix A (Messages Reported by EDGAR) of the "EDGAR Filer Manual, Volume II: EDGAR Filing."

  • Form MA (and its variants) will be updated with the following changes:
    • For submission form types MA, MA-A, MA/A, MA-I, and MA-I/A submitted using the filer-interface, EDGAR will no longer prepend leading zeros for the provided CRD Number values. Any CRD Number with prepended zeros will have the zeros removed.

      For filer-constructed submissions, filers should either provide a value of “000000000” or ensure that the CRD Number value does not have any leading zeros. Otherwise, the filer-constructed submission will be suspended if there are leading zeros for the CRD Number value.

    • For submission form types MA, MA-A, and MA/A, filers will no longer be able to edit their response if a value of “No” is provided for the field “Is the mailing address different from the principal office and place of business address in Item 1-E(1)?”
    • For submission form types MA-A and MA/A, Schedule C will be updated with a “Summary of Schedule C Changes” button to only display the newly added, edited, or deleted entries from Schedules A and B in that current submission. On the Print ‘Current Form’ option, only the newly added, edited, or deleted entries from Schedule C will display within Schedule C. The “Type of Amendment” value will no longer pre-populate for existing entries on Schedule C.
    • The Print ‘Current Form’ option for submission form types MA, MA-A, MA/A, MA-I, and MA-I/A will be updated to no longer display Part 2 information of the DRPs if a filer responds “Yes” to the field “Is an accurate and up-to-date DRP containing the information regarding the applicant or associated person required by this DRP already on file (a) in the IARD or CRD system (with a Form ADV, BD, or U4), or (b) in the SEC's EDGAR system (with a Form MA or Form MA-I)?” In addition, the “Provide the applicable information indicated below that identifies where the DRP may be found” section of Part 1 of the DRPs will not be displayed on the Print ‘Current Form’ if there is no information provided in that section within Part 1.

    See Chapter 8 (Preparing and Transmitting Online Submissions) of the "EDGAR Filer Manual, Volume II: EDGAR Filing."

    For more information, see the "EDGAR Form MA XML Technical Specification" document available on the SEC's Public Website (https://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/tech-specs).

  • EDGAR will no longer provide support for the US-GAAP 2017, EXCH 2017, and CURRENCY 2016 taxonomies. EDGAR will also be updated to support the 2019 version of IFRS Taxonomy. Please see https://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/edgartaxonomies.shtml for a complete list of supported standard taxonomies.

EDGAR Release 19.2 will also implement a number of other changes that do not impact the EDGAR Filer Manual, which are detailed in the Release Notes.

On April 1, 2019, EDGAR Release 19.1.1 introduced the following changes:

  • EDGAR Release 19.1.1 implemented changes to the filing requirements for submission form type NPORT-P to be filed 60 calendar days following the month indicated in the period date of the submission. Submission form type NPORT-NP was updated to be filed within and up to 60 calendar days after the end of a fund’s fiscal quarter. Regardless of this change, the first six months of NPORT-P and NPORT-P/A filings will remain non-public. The following changes were implemented because of Commission rulemaking as described in Release IC-33384:
    • Require filers to indicate that NPORT-P and NPORT-P/A submissions are non-confidential, and that NPORT-NP and NPORT-NP/A submissions are confidential.
    • Allow filers to submit NPORT-EX as an attachment for submission form types NPORT-P and NPORT-P/A with a period date after August 31, 2019.
    • Suspend submission form types NPORT-EX and NPORT-EX/A filings with period dates after August 31, 2019.
    • Immediately disseminate NPORT-P and variant filings including attachments if those filings pass EDGAR validations and have a period date after August 31, 2019.

    For more information, see the “EDGAR Form N-PORT XML Technical Specification” document available on the SEC’s Public Website (https://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/tech-specs).

  • Submission form types ATS-N, ATS-N/MA, ATS-N/UA, ATS-N/CA, ATS-N/OFA, ATS-N-C, and ATS-N-W have been updated with revised error messages to indicate that invalid characters are not allowed in free-text fields. Filers should refer to Chapter 5 (Constructing Attached Documents and Document Types) of the “EDGAR Filer Manual, Volume II: EDGAR Filing” for more details on EDGAR acceptable characters. See Chapter 8 (Preparing and Transmitting Online Submissions) of the "EDGAR Filer Manual, Volume II: EDGAR Filing."
  • For more information, see the “EDGAR Form ATS-N XML Technical Specification” document available on the SEC’s Public Website (https://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/tech-specs).