SEC reboots reform comments after glitch

If you were worried that some of your thoughts on the SEC’s ambitious reform agenda were falling on deaf ears, you may have been on to something. The Commission is reopening comments on 11 big-ticket rulemaking proposals because a “technological error” swallowed public letters.

Another nine rulemaking notices from self-regulatory organizations, including two from FINRA—one on aggregating Treasury note deals, the other on arbitration expungements—were also affected, the SEC says.

“The majority of the affected comments were submitted in August 2022; however, the technological error is known to have occurred as early as June 2021,” the Commission says in a statement issued late Oct. 7. “All commenters who submitted a public comment to one of the affected comment files through the Internet comment form between June 2021 and August 2022 are advised to check the relevant comment file posted on SEC.gov to determine whether their comment was received and posted. If a comment has not been posted, commenters should resubmit that comment.”

The reopened dockets include the Commission’s proposed ESG disclosure rules for investment advisers, strict new reporting requirements for cybersecurity, new private fund audit rules, SPAC reforms and proposed overhauls of money market funds, institutional fund managers’ shorting strategies, the names rule and security-based swaps, the Commission says.

Affiliate publication Regulatory Compliance Watch has reached out to the SEC for an explanation of what went wrong. So far, we haven’t heard back.

The SEC has issued a new proposed order. If adopted as written, commenters will have 14 extra days to comment on the proposed rules.