SEC Delays Form N-PORT Submission Requirements
On Friday, December 8, 2017, the SEC issued a Temporary Rule that provides a nine-month delay of the filing dates for certain registered investment companies to submit data using the new Form N-PORT via the EDGAR system. The SEC delayed the initial reporting requirement for Form N-PORT, giving the agency time to review data security for EDGAR and its other systems. For larger fund groups with net assets in excess of $1 billion, the compliance deadline of June 1, 2018 remains the same, but the initial filing has been delayed for nine months until April 30, 2019.
These larger fund groups will still be required to gather and maintain all the data required by Form N-PORT as of the original reporting date (June 1, 2018) and such information will be subject to examination by the SEC staff. However, they will not need to submit an initial Form N-PORT filing until April 30, 2019. For smaller firms, the compliance and submission deadlines have been delayed by nine months with a compliance date of March 1, 2020 and initial filing due April 30, 2020.
Larger Firms
For larger firms (funds that together with other investment companies in the same “group of related investment companies” have net assets of $1 billion or more as of the end of the most recent fiscal year of the fund), the compliance date remains June 1, 2018 and the first reporting period remains the month of June 2018 (due July 30, 2018). However, for the first nine months of reporting – until the March 2019 reporting period (due April 30, 2019) – firms will not submit electronically via EDGAR. Instead, firms will maintain the reports in their records and make them available to the SEC upon request.
This modified reporting regime also applies to the Form N-PORT questions added as a result of the Liquidity Risk Management Programs adopting release. The deadline for those questions remains the same.
As before, the first six months of reporting via EDGAR will remain non-public. Thus, reporting for March 2019 (due April 30, 2019) through August 2019 (due September 30, 2019) will be non-public. As before, portfolio information attached as exhibits for Form N-PORT for the first and third quarters of a fund’s fiscal year will still be made public during this six-month period.
| Reporting Milestone | Relevant Date |
| Compliance date | June 1, 2018 |
| First reporting date [1] | July 30, 2018 (covering June 2018 reporting period) |
| First report submitted via EDGAR [2] | April 30, 2019 (covering March 2019 reporting period) |
Smaller Firms
For smaller firms, the compliance date is delayed by nine months so that smaller firms will still benefit from starting one year after larger firms. The new compliance date is March 1, 2020, and the first reporting period is March 2020 (due April 30, 2020). The first report will be submitted electronically via EDGAR.
| Reporting Milestone | Relevant Date |
| Compliance date | March 1, 2020 |
| First reporting date | April 30, 2020 (covering March 2020 reporting period) |
Form N-Q
Until firms are submitting Form N-PORT via EDGAR (March 2019 reporting period for larger firms and March 2020 reporting period for smaller firms), firms must continue to report Form N-Q. This means that starting June 1, 2018, larger firms must prepare reports for both Form N-Q and Form N-PORT. The new rescission date for Form N-Q is May 1, 2020, so that smaller firms can submit their final Form N-Q report for the month of February 2020.
Correspondingly, the compliance dates for the amendments to the certification requirements of Form N-CSR will be March 1, 2019 for larger firms and March 1, 2020 for smaller firms.
Form N-CEN
There are no modifications to the Form N-CEN reporting requirements. Firms must still report via EDGAR. The initial Form N-CEN filing is due for both larger and smaller funds 75 days after the end of the fiscal year ending on or after June 1, 2018.
Effect on Liquidity Risk Management Rule
Form N-PORT includes additional reporting requirements, specifically requiring an open-end fund (excluding money market funds) to report monthly position-level and aggregate liquidity classification information, the percentage of highly liquid investments segregated to cover derivative transaction margin requirements and highly liquid investment minimums to the SEC. The Liquidity Risk Management rule’s compliance date is December 1, 2018 for larger funds and June 1, 2019 for smaller funds. The Temporary Rule modified the initial EDGAR filing date for the Liquidity Risk Management classification reporting requirements on Form N PORT until April 30, 2019 (relating to March 31, 2019 data) for larger fund and smaller funds the filing date was delayed until April 30, 2020 (relating to March 31, 2020 data). Similar to Form N-PORT, larger funds must gather and maintain all of the data required by the Liquidity Risk Management rule as of the original compliance date (i.e., January 30, 2019 relating to December 31, 2018 data). Smaller funds do not need to maintain data as of the original compliance date.
Conclusion
While these changes delay the electronic submission deadline, larger firms will still need to be prepared to comply with Form N-PORT’s requirements as of June 1, 2018. In practice, this means that firms should continue their Form N-PORT preparations according to the schedule in place prior to the December 8, 2017 announcement.
[1] This report and all reports submitted before April 30, 2019 will not be electronically submitted to EDGAR. Instead firms will maintain the reports in their records and make them available to the SEC upon request.
[2] The first 6 months of EDGAR reporting (for March 2019 through September 2019) will remain non-public, except that portfolio information attached as exhibits for the first and third quarters of a fund’s fiscal year will still be made public.
This post was co-written by Peter Guarino of Ascendant Compliance Management and Jeanette Turner of Advise Technologies. Ascendant and Advise are both part of Compliance Solutions Strategies, a global RegTech platform providing comprehensive solutions and services for compliance professionals.
To learn more about Form N-PORT and how you can prepare, please contact Ascendant or Advise.