TheCorporateCounsel.net

July 28, 2003

Effective today, the SEC has

Effective today, the SEC has tweaked Edgar so that CEO/CFO certifications must be filed as Exhibits 31 (for Section 301 certs) and 32 (for 906 certs) – rather than under “signatures” and as exhibit 99. In addition, earnings releases and blackout period information must now be filed under the 8-K items that were originally intended (ie. the SEC’s interim fix of using Item 9 is no longer in effect).

For TheCorporateCounsel.net subscribers, we have posted a Word file of the new 302 certification at http://www.thecorporatecounsel.net/member/DocLibrary/302_certification.doc.

Also, the SEC has commenced a 6-month trial to allow same-day Edgar filings to be received at 6 am EST – 2 hours earlier than the 8 am official start time. See http://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/ednews/edchanges728.htm.

This SEC press release is curiously silent about the changes to the Section 16 e-filing system that are supposed to take effect today (as noted in this SEC final release from last week adopting updated Edgar Manual 8.6 – http://www.sec.gov/rules/final/33-8255.htm).

Based on what we know, we expect the SEC’s changes to not fix all the snags that currently exist. As a result, we have added a session to this Wednesday’s webcast where Alan Dye will explain these traps and offer possible solutions – join us Wednesday for “50 Nuggets in 50 Minutes” at http://www.greatgovernance.com/programs.html#50nuggets.

Last Friday, the SEC released a study encouraging the adoption of a “principles-based” accounting system – see http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2003-86.htm.