Leading Financial and Business Policy Organizations Provide Recommendations to SEC for Near-Term Improvements to EDGAR

May 29, 2015

Washington, DC –The Business Roundtable (BRT), the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ), Financial Executives International (FEI), and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce´s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC) today filed a comment letter offering recommendation on the SEC´s EDGAR Modernization initiative. The letter outlines recommendations that could incrementally improve EDGAR filing information on the SEC´s website in the near-term, prior to implementation of other enhancements and without the need for SEC rulemaking.

The recommendations focus on consolidating and updating current EDGAR search features by improving their visibility and organization, along with additional enhancements to EDGAR, which include improvements to the company search page, filings detail screen, and output functionality. They include the following:

• Show all available search options on one consolidated search page, rather than multiple screens.
• Make company searches easier by adding the ability to have companies and their related ticker symbols appear, while the user is typing, to help narrow the search.
• Expand form search options, including the ability to click multiple form types and ability to search form item numbers.
• Improve the company search results page by adding the ability to sort results in multiple ways, such as by form type or form series.
• Add the capability of accessing all of a company´s exhibits from one screen rather than having to go into individual company filings, with a way to identify which exhibits have been amended. Also, enhance the ability to use a search engine across the exhibits.
• Create an outline or a navigation panel to allow users to jump to different sections or exhibits within a company filing.

  As the letter says, "The CAQ, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, FEI, and BRT support the SEC´s efforts to improve the quality and effectiveness of disclosures and appreciate the opportunity to comment on near-term EDGAR improvements as part of these efforts."

  "We believe that implementing these recommendations would only be an incremental first step in the SEC´s EDGAR Modernization initiative. As the SEC continues in its EDGAR Modernization efforts, we encourage the SEC to engage with multiple stakeholders both within and outside of the SEC, and collaborate with the Office of Information Technology and the Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC to ensure that improvements address stakeholder needs."

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  For more information:

Center for Audit Quality
Andrew Gillies
(202) 609-8048
​agillies@thecaq.org

Financial Executives International
Liliana (Lili) DeVita
(973) 765-1021
​ldevita@financialexecutives.org

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness
Erica Flint
(202) 463-5682
​eflint@uschamber.com