SEC Reopening Comment Period On Several Key Proposed Rules After Technical Error

The SEC on Oct. 7, 2022, reopened the comment period for 11 rule making proposals, one request for comment and eight Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) matters – all due to a technical error. This glitch likely throws a wrench in the SEC's push to speed up the rulemaking process.

In August 2022, commenters noticed their submissions – made through the SEC's website – were not posted on the proposed rule's page. After market participants informed SEC staff of the issue, the SEC discovered the problem: When comment letters were submitted on the website as an attachment, the letter attachment was not sent to the Office of the Secretary, where the comment letters are processed. Although the SEC insists the glitch mainly impacted comments submitted in August 2022, the error was found to have occurred as early as June 2021. The SEC estimates almost 200 comment letters were lost due to the technical error, a small fraction of the more than 25,000 unique comment letters