(a) Information required in registration statement
(1) In general
The registration statement, when relating to a security other than a security issued by a foreign government, or political subdivision thereof, shall contain the information, and be accompanied by the documents, specified in Schedule A of section 77aa of this title, and when relating to a security issued by a foreign government, or political subdivision thereof, shall contain the information, and be accompanied by the documents, specified in Schedule B of section 77aa of this title; except that the Commission may by rules or regulations provide that any such information or document need not be included in respect of any class of issuers or securities if it finds that the requirement of such information or document is inapplicable to such class and that disclosure fully adequate for the protection of investors is otherwise required to be included within the registration statement. If any accountant, engineer, or appraiser, or any person whose profession gives authority to a statement made by him, is named as having prepared or certified any part of the registration statement, or is named as having prepared or certified a report or valuation for use in connection with the registration statement, the written consent of such person shall be filed with the registration statement. If any such person is named as having prepared or certified a report or valuation (other than a public official document or statement) which is used in connection with the registration statement, but is not named as having prepared or certified such report or valuation for use in connection with the registration statement, the written consent of such person shall be filed with the registration statement unless the Commission dispenses with such filing as impracticable or as involving undue hardship on the person filing the registration statement. Any such registration statement shall contain such other information, and be accompanied by such other documents, as the Commission may by rules or regulations require as being necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors.
(2) Treatment of emerging growth companies
An emerging growth company—
(A) need not present more than 2 years of audited financial statements in order for the registration statement of such emerging growth company with respect to an initial public offering of its common equity securities to be effective, and in any other registration statement to be filed with the Commission, an emerging growth company need not present selected financial data in accordance with section 229.301 of title 17, Code of Federal Regulations, for any period prior to the earliest audited period presented in connection with its initial public offering; and
(B) may not be required to comply with any new or revised financial accounting standard until such date that a company that is not an issuer (as defined under section 7201 of this title) is required to comply with such new or revised accounting standard, if such standard applies to companies that are not issuers.
(b) Registration statement for blank check companies
(1) The Commission shall prescribe special rules with respect to registration statements filed by any issuer that is a blank check company. Such rules may, as the Commission determines necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors—
(A) require such issuers to provide timely disclosure, prior to or after such statement becomes effective under section 77h of this title, of (i) information regarding the company to be acquired and the specific application of the proceeds of the offering, or (ii) additional information necessary to prevent such statement from being misleading;
(B) place limitations on the use of such proceeds and the distribution of securities by such issuer until the disclosures required under subparagraph (A) have been made; and
(C) provide a right of rescission to shareholders of such securities.
(2) The Commission may, as it determines consistent with the public interest and the protection of investors, by rule or order exempt any issuer or class of issuers from the rules prescribed under paragraph (1).
(3) For purposes of paragraph (1) of this subsection, the term "blank check company" means any development stage company that is issuing a penny stock (within the meaning of section 78c(a)(51) of this title) and that—
(A) has no specific business plan or purpose; or
(B) has indicated that its business plan is to merge with an unidentified company or companies.
(c) Disclosure requirements
(1) In general
The Commission shall adopt regulations under this subsection requiring each issuer of an asset-backed security to disclose, for each tranche or class of security, information regarding the assets backing that security.
(2) Content of regulations
In adopting regulations under this subsection, the Commission shall—
(A) set standards for the format of the data provided by issuers of an asset-backed security, which shall, to the extent feasible, facilitate comparison of such data across securities in similar types of asset classes; and
(B) require issuers of asset-backed securities, at a minimum, to disclose asset-level or loan-level data, if such data are necessary for investors to independently perform due diligence, including—
(i) data having unique identifiers relating to loan brokers or originators;
(ii) the nature and extent of the compensation of the broker or originator of the assets backing the security; and
(iii) the amount of risk retention by the originator and the securitizer of such assets.
(d) Registration statement for asset-backed securities
Not later than 180 days after July 21, 2010, the Commission shall issue rules relating to the registration statement required to be filed by any issuer of an asset-backed security (as that term is defined in section 78c(a)(77) 1 of this title) that require any issuer of an asset-backed security—
(1) to perform a review of the assets underlying the asset-backed security; and
(2) to disclose the nature of the review under paragraph (1).
References in Text
Section 78c(a)(77) of this title, referred to in subsec. (d), was redesignated section 78c(a)(79) of this title by Pub. L. 112–106, title I, §101(b)(1), Apr. 5, 2012, 126 Stat. 307.
Amendments
2012—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 112–106 inserted subsec. heading, designated existing provisions as par. (1), inserted par. heading, and added par. (2).
2010—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 111–203, §942(b), added subsec. (c).
Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 111–203, §945, added subsec. (d).
1990—Pub. L. 101–429 designated existing provision as subsec. (a) and added subsec. (b).
Effective Date of 2010 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 111–203 effective 1 day after July 21, 2010, except as otherwise provided, see section 4 of Pub. L. 111–203, set out as an Effective Date note under section 5301 of Title 12, Banks and Banking.
Effective Date of 1990 Amendment
Pub. L. 101–429, §1(c), Oct. 15, 1990, 104 Stat. 931, provided that:
"(1)
"(2)
"(A)
"(B)
"(3)
"(A)
"(B)
"(C)
Transfer of Functions
For transfer of functions of Securities and Exchange Commission, with certain exceptions, to Chairman of such Commission, see Reorg. Plan No. 10 of 1950, §§1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3175, 64 Stat. 1265, set out under section 78d of this title.
Improvement of Regulation S–K
Pub. L. 114–94, div. G, title LXXII, §72002, Dec. 4, 2015, 129 Stat. 1784, provided that: "Not later than the end of the 180-day period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act [Dec. 4, 2015], the Securities and Exchange Commission shall take all such actions to revise regulation S–K (17 CFR 229.10 et seq.)—
"(1) to further scale or eliminate requirements of regulation S–K, in order to reduce the burden on emerging growth companies, accelerated filers, smaller reporting companies, and other smaller issuers, while still providing all material information to investors;
"(2) to eliminate provisions of regulation S–K, required for all issuers, that are duplicative, overlapping, outdated, or unnecessary; and
"(3) for which the Commission determines that no further study under section 72203 [probably means section 72003 of Pub. L. 114–94, set out as a note under section 77s of this title] is necessary to determine the efficacy of such revisions to regulation S–K."
Forward Incorporation by Reference for Form S–1
Pub. L. 114–94, div. G, title LXXXIV, §84001, Dec. 4, 2015, 129 Stat. 1797, provided that: "Not later than 45 days after the date of the enactment of this Act [Dec. 4, 2015], the Securities and Exchange Commission shall revise Form S–1 so as to permit a smaller reporting company (as defined in section 230.405 of title 17, Code of Federal Regulations) to incorporate by reference in a registration statement filed on such form any documents that such company files with the Commission after the effective date of such registration statement."
Other Disclosures
Pub. L. 112–106, title I, §102(c), Apr. 5, 2012, 126 Stat. 310, provided that: "An emerging growth company may comply with section 229.303(a) of title 17, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor thereto, by providing information required by such section with respect to the financial statements of the emerging growth company for each period presented pursuant to section 7(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 (15 U.S.C. 77g(a)). An emerging growth company may comply with section 229.402 of title 17, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor thereto, by disclosing the same information as any issuer with a market value of outstanding voting and nonvoting common equity held by non-affiliates of less than $75,000,000."
Simplified Disclosure Requirements
Pub. L. 112–106, title I, §102(d), as added by Pub. L. 114–94, div. G, title LXXI, §71003, Dec. 4, 2015, 129 Stat. 1783, provided that: "With respect to an emerging growth company (as such term is defined under section 2 of the Securities Act of 1933 [15 U.S.C. 77b]):
"(1)
"(A) the omitted financial information relates to a historical period that the issuer reasonably believes will not be required to be included in the Form S–1 or F–1 at the time of the contemplated offering; and
"(B) prior to the issuer distributing a preliminary prospectus to investors, such registration statement is amended to include all financial information required by such regulation S–X at the date of such amendment.
"(2)
"(A) the omitted financial information relates to a historical period that the issuer reasonably believes will not be required to be included in the Form S–1 or Form F–1 at the time of the contemplated offering; and
"(B) prior to the issuer distributing a preliminary prospectus to investors, such registration statement is amended to include all financial information required by such regulation S–X at the date of such amendment."
1 See References in Text note below.