(Reuters) – The top U.S. markets regulator on Wednesday unveiled a proposal to abolish a set of paper-based forms and digitize disclosure requirements to modernize how broker-dealers, stock exchanges, clearing agencies and others report to the government.
At a public meeting, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s five members were due to vote on the proposal, which also would allow electronic signatures and machine-readable data for some of the forms to be submitted to the agency’s heavily used EDGAR internet database for securities filings.
The forms include annual compliance reports by securities-based swap dealers and risk assessments by broker-dealers. Under the proposal, securities exchanges could simply update their websites when they begin trading in new derivatives.
The SEC on Tuesday postponed plans for Wednesday’s open meeting to include a vote on adopting a proposal requiring money mangers in the $20 trillion private asset management industry to notify authorities of threats to the stability of the global financial system.
The SEC decided the proposed text was not ready for adoption, a spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Douglas Gillison; Editing by Richard Chang)
