In light of ongoing health and safety concerns arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Corp Fin has issued a statement regarding implementation of a new temporary secure file transfer process for the electronic submission of supplemental materials under Rule 418 and Rule 12b-4 and of information subject to Rule 83 confidential treatment requests.  

Rule 418 and Rule 12b-4. Under Rule 418 and Rule 12b-4, the SEC may request the submission of supplemental materials, not deemed to be filed with the SEC and typically returned to the company upon request.  Under the new secure file transfer process available as a temporary accommodation, these supplemental materials (including supplemental materials subject to a Rule 83 CTR) can be submitted to Corp Fin electronically. This process is not available for confidential treatment applications submitted under Rule 406 or Rule 24b-2, which must be filed in paper with the Office of the Secretary.

Rule 83. Rule 83 permits paper submission of requests for confidential treatment for portions of submitted information where no other confidential treatment process applies.  Under the temporary secure file transfer process, Rule 83 CTRs and the related confidential information may be submitted electronically. Note that the CTR (but not the confidential information itself) must also be submitted to the SEC’s Office of FOIA Services.  (The FOIA Office also has a temporary special procedure for submission of CTRs. See https://www.sec.gov/foia/conftreat.htm.)

Corp Fin will not retain supplemental information subject to Rule 418 or Rule 12b-4 received through the secure file transfer process after the materials have been reviewed, but any other information will be retained  in accordance with the appropriate records retention schedules.   To take advantage of the new process, the company should contact the staff member associated with the matter to request the initiation of a secure file transfer; the information should not be sent through email (although the SEC mailroom is still available, but information could be subject to processing delays).

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