By Mr Kenneth Wiener (Partner) and co-authored by Mr. Thiago Kurtz (Articling Student)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") has recently adopted amendments to the rules governing the filing of securities documents by foreign issuers. Beginning November 4, 2002, foreign private issuers and foreign governments, including Canadian Multijurisdictional Disclosure System ("MJDS") filers, will be required to file substantially all of their Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act") and Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") documents via the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval ("EDGAR") system. At present, the SEC rules permit, but do not require, foreign issuers to file their securities documents on EDGAR and a paper filing is permitted. Domestic U.S. issuers, however, were required to file electronically on EDGAR beginning in 1993.
