New, more rigorous requirements for filing some documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission may be the spark that eventually results in a user-friendly version of Edgar, the SEC's electronic filing system. Meanwhile, to meet the speedier deadlines and electronic filing mandates imposed by this year's Sarbanes-Oxley Act, companies might want to consider a crop of new compliance product offerings.

Before Sarbanes-Oxley, companies had until the 10th day of the next month to notify the SEC about an insider transaction using Form 3, 4 or 5, known collectively as Section 16 forms. Section 16 forms are among the few that the SEC has still been accepting on paper, and companies took advantage of that fact: In 2001, more than 90% of Form 4s were filed on paper. The new law not only cuts the filing time to two days, it requires that by July 2003 at the latest, all Section 16 forms be filed via Edgar.

Even under the old rules, many companies turned to law firms and financial printers to handle their Edgar filing headaches. In response to the tighter deadlines, financial printers and software companies are stepping up with a variety of solutions, many accessible via the Web, that speedily convert Section 16 forms to the Edgar format and file them.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Thought leadership on regulatory changes, economic trends, corporate success stories, and tactical solutions for treasurers, CFOs, risk managers, controllers, and other finance professionals
  • Informative weekly newsletter featuring news, analysis, real-world case studies, and other critical content
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.