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SEC Approves Rules Requiring Hyperlinks to Exhibits

On March 1, 2017, the Commission voted to adopt a rule and form amendments which require issuers to hyperlink all exhibits referenced in the exhibits lists of their registration statements and periodic reports to the corresponding documents. This includes all exhibits that are incorporated by reference. The objective is to make it easier for investors to locate and view exhibits without having to search through previously filed reports which can be quite tedious.

Those registrants that file registration statements or reports subject to the exhibit requirement under Item 601 of Regulation S-K or that file Forms F-10 or 20-F, are affected by this amendment and must include a hyperlink to each exhibit listed in the report’s exhibits list. The rule will take effect on September 1, 2017.

Furthermore, registrants who are still filing in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) must file these forms in HTML format as ASCII format does not support hyperlinks. These corporations may still file their other reports not subject to the Item 601 of Regulation S-K exhibit requirement in ASCII format. The Commission has provided a longer timeline for these registrants to comply. Non-accelerated filers and smaller reporting companies filing in ASCII format will have until September 1, 2018 to comply.

Highland is already fully equipped to implement these hyperlinks. Questions? Give us a call!

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