17 CFR Chapter I - COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) is seeking public comment from individual investors and other interested parties on enhancing disclosures by mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), and other types of investment funds to improve the investor experience and to help investors make more informed investment decisions. Specifically, we are seeking comment to learn how investors, like you, use these disclosures and how you believe funds can improve disclosures to help you make investment decisions. We are particularly interested in your input on the delivery, design, and content of fund disclosures. In addition to or in place of responses to questions in this release, investors seeking to comment on the investor experience and improving fund disclosure may want to submit a short Feedback Flier on Improving Fund Disclosure.

As directed by Congress pursuant to the Fair Access to Investment Research Act of 2017, the Commission is proposing a new rule under the Securities Act of 1933. If adopted, the proposal would establish a safe harbor for an unaffiliated broker or dealer participating in a securities offering of a “covered investment fund” to publish or distribute a “covered investment fund research report.” If the conditions for the safe harbor are satisfied, this publication or distribution would be deemed not to be an offer for sale or offer to sell the covered investment fund's securities for purposes of sections 2(a)(10) and 5(c) of the Securities Act of 1933. The Commission is also proposing a new rule under the Investment Company Act of 1940. This proposal would exclude a covered investment fund research report from the coverage of section 24(b) of the Investment Company Act (or the rules and regulations thereunder), except to the extent the research report is otherwise not subject to the content standards in self-regulatory organization rules related to research reports, including those contained in the rules governing communications with the public regarding investment companies or substantially similar standards. We are also proposing a conforming amendment.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) is making technical amendments to certain rules of organization and rules of practice to indicate that Commission materials will no longer be compiled and published as the “SEC Docket” (“SEC Docket” or “Docket”), but will continue to be available on the SEC public website.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) is granting an exemption to certain member firms designated by the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE) from the application of certain of the Commission's foreign futures and option regulations based upon substituted compliance with certain comparable regulatory and self-regulatory requirements of a foreign regulatory authority consistent with conditions specified by the Commission, as set forth herein. This Order is issued pursuant to Commission Regulation 30.10, which permit persons to file a petition with the Commission for exemption from the application of certain of the Regulations set forth in part 30 and authorizes the Commission to grant such an exemption if such action would not be otherwise contrary to the public interest or to the purposes of the provision from which exemption is sought. The Commission notes that this Order does not pertain to any transaction in swaps, as defined in Section 1a(47) of the Commodity Exchange Act (Act).

The Copyright Royalty Judges (Judges) publish for comment proposed regulations that set rates and terms for the making of an ephemeral recording of a sound recording by a business establishment service for the period January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2023.

We are adopting revisions to forms filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) to eliminate the portion of those forms that requests filers to furnish certain personally identifiable information (“PII”) of natural persons, including Social Security numbers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) is proposing to amend its auditor independence rules to refocus the analysis that must be conducted to determine whether an auditor is independent when the auditor has a lending relationship with certain shareholders of an audit client at any time during an audit or professional engagement period. The proposed amendments would focus the analysis solely on beneficial ownership rather than on both record and beneficial ownership; replace the existing 10 percent bright-line shareholder ownership test with a “significant influence” test; add a “known through reasonable inquiry” standard with respect to identifying beneficial owners of the audit client's equity securities; and amend the definition of “audit client” for a fund under audit to exclude funds that otherwise would be considered affiliates of the audit client. The Commission is also requesting comment on certain other potential amendments to its auditor independence rules.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission” or “SEC”) is proposing to conduct a Transaction Fee Pilot for National Market System (“NMS”) stocks to study the effects that transaction-based fees and rebates may have on, and the effects that changes to those fees and rebates may have on, order routing behavior, execution quality, and market quality more generally. The data generated by the proposed pilot should help inform the Commission, as well as market participants and the public, about any such effects and thereby facilitate a data-driven evaluation of the need for regulatory action in this area.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing amendments to its forms designed to improve the reporting and disclosure of liquidity information by registered open-end investment companies. The Commission is proposing a new requirement that funds disclose information about the operation and effectiveness of their liquidity risk management program in their annual reports to shareholders. The Commission in turn is proposing to rescind the current requirement in Form N-PORT under the Investment Company Act of 1940 that funds publicly disclose aggregate liquidity classification information about their portfolios, in light of concerns about the usefulness of that information for investors. In addition, the Commission is proposing amendments to Form N-PORT that would allow funds classifying the liquidity of their investments pursuant to their liquidity risk management programs required by rule 22e-4 under the Investment Company Act of 1940 to report on Form N-PORT multiple liquidity classification categories for a single position under certain specified circumstances. Finally, the Commission is proposing to add to Form N-PORT a new requirement that funds and other registrants report their holdings of cash and cash equivalents.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) is adopting revisions to the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval System (“EDGAR”) Filer Manual and related rules. The EDGAR system is scheduled to be upgraded on March 12, 2018.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission) is amending Rule 143.8, its rule that governs the maximum amount of civil monetary penalties, to adjust for inflation. This rule sets forth the maximum, inflation-adjusted dollar amount for civil monetary penalties (CMPs) assessable for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and Commission rules, regulations and orders thereunder. The rule, as amended, implements the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is adopting an interim final rule that revises the compliance date for the requirements of rule 22e-4 for classification, highly liquid investment minimum, and board approval, as well as related reporting requirements of Part D on Form N-LIQUID and liquidity disclosures on Form N-PORT under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The revised compliance date will be June 1, 2019, for larger entities (revised from December 1, 2018) and December 1, 2019, for smaller entities (revised from June 1, 2019). The Commission is not extending the compliance date for the other provisions of rule 22e-4 and Form N-LIQUID, and liquidity-related changes to Form N-CEN—which remain December 1, 2018 for larger entities and June 1, 2019 for smaller entities. The Commission also is not extending the compliance date for the liquidity-related provisions of Form N-1A, which has already passed. Finally, the Commission is providing guidance to assist funds that will not be engaging in full portfolio classification before the revised compliance date, and In-Kind ETFs, which are not required to engage in full portfolio classification, in identifying illiquid investments for purposes of complying with the 15% illiquid investment limit.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) is publishing interpretive guidance to assist public companies in preparing disclosures about cybersecurity risks and incidents.