U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 

FY 2010 E-Government Act Report 

Prepared by: The Office of Information Technology 

Information Resource Management Branch 
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 

FY 2010 E-Government Act Report 

Section I: Innovation and Transparency

The SEC supports the goals of the E-Government Act of 2002 by using technology to enhance the 

access to and delivery of Government information and services to citizens, businesses and other 

Federal agencies. The following are examples of these initiatives. 

I-A. Investor Response Information System 

The Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) responds to tens of thousands of questions, 

comments and complaints from individual investors on securities-related issues every year. The 

contacts are received via telephone, e-mail, Web-form submissions, and US mail. Case files 

were previously tracked in a legacy system with limitations on uploading attachments and 

reporting. The system’s up-time and speed were also intermittent. 

To address these issues, the SEC implemented a cloud-based CRM system named the Investor 

Response Information System (IRIS). Since the implementation of the system, the SEC has 

realized improvements in system reliability, efficiency and accuracy. Paper files are scanned 

into the system and worked electronically. All investor contact channels (e-mail, Web-form, US 

mail, fax, and phone) are brought into a single queue to be assigned and worked electronically. 

All documentation can now be attached to case files, allowing staff members to build a complete 

chronology of events. 

In this new paperless environment, OIEA is better equipped to handle investor contacts more 

efficiently. The new system provides greater transparency into the case history of files and an 

enhanced ability to analyze investor trends. This analysis is useful for assisting investors as well 

as informing other SEC offices and divisions of investor concerns and perspectives. 

I-B. Investor.gov Initiative 

In another initiative, the SEC continues to update and improve its Web-based information. 

Investor.gov is a micro site devoted exclusively to investor education, providing investors with 

in-depth information and "top tips" on how to invest wisely, plan for the future, and avoid 

investment scams. By visiting Investor.gov, investors can access information in a user-friendly 

format that is specifically tailored to their needs. The site includes sections specifically for 

those just getting started investing, for those saving for a child's education, and for those 

planning for retirement. It also has a detailed "Seniors Care Package" section for senior citizens 

and caretakers. Currently, there are approximately 30,000 Web hits a month on Investor.gov. In 

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2011, the SEC plans on redesigning and modernizing the Web site and including the Web site 

address on all materials and publications. 

Investor.gov also offers a section in Spanish, targeting the millions of Spanish-speaking investors 

in the United States. The "En Español" section presents information about what to do if an 

investor feels that he or she has been a fraud victim, as well as a Spanish-language podcast 

explaining the history and functions of the SEC. 

Investor.gov provides an extensive collection of investor education materials, tools, calculators, 

checklists, as well as valuable investor alerts. 

Investor.gov is the latest in a series of social media initiatives undertaken by the SEC. On the 

home page of the SEC’s public Web site, www.sec.gov, visitors can sign up to receive 

information and instant e-mail alerts on more than 80 topics of interest to investors as well as 

other market participants. The agency also reaches investors online through other social media 

channels such as Twitter and YouTube: 

• Investor Information – www.twitter.com/SEC_Investor_Ed

• News Releases and Alerts – www.twitter.com/SEC_News

• Careers at the SEC – www.twitter.com/SEC_Jobs

• You Tube channel – www.YouTube.com/SECViews

I-C. Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) System 

The SEC’s cornerstone E-government initiative, which has been active since 1995, is EDGAR. 

Each year, the EDGAR system accepts, processes and disseminates to the public more than 

700,000 documents from companies and individuals. These filings include the annual reports of 

more than 10,000 reporting companies and over 15,000 Investment management companies. The 

EDGAR program has made eight tools for accessing and searching SEC filing data available 

through DATA.GOV. 

The SEC is also working on the “Next-Generation EDGAR System” 

(http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm), which is a new interface for investors 

who use EDGAR data on the agency’s Web site. This system highlights data that was sent to the 

SEC through EDGAR as part of the XBRL Interactive Data Initiative and Voluntary filer program 

that started in 2005. (Note: XBRL is a version of XML used for financial reporting.) 

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I-D. Tips, Complaints and Referrals (TCR) Transitional Repository 

The SEC receives tens of thousands of TCRs per year from investors and the general public, as 

well as from those the SEC regulates, including broker-dealers, investment advisers, and public 

companies. The agency kicked off a Commission-wide initiative in 2009, seeking to establish a 

centralized process to better identify valuable leads for potential enforcement action and areas 

of high risk for compliance examinations. The SEC conducted a comprehensive review of its 

processes for receiving, recording, tracking, and taking action on TCRs. As a result of the 

business process analysis effort the SEC determined that there is a requirement to have a system 

to support the intake and resolution of SEC TCRs. In order to ensure that a large majority of the 

TCRs received were available in a central, staff-accessible form, the SEC deployed a transitional 

repository in January 2010. This repository collects a large number of TCRs and allows staff to 

review, assign and research the TCRs. The transitional repository has become an invaluable tool 

for the SEC staff. 

In May 2010, the SEC initiated a contract to provide a more comprehensive TCR system to 

implement flexible workflow, content management, and status tracking capabilities to support 

the intake and resolution process for TCRs. The TCR intake and resolution solution is scheduled 

for delivery in December 2010. Additionally, an automated TCR triage solution will be 

integrated in a future release of the TCR intake and resolution system. The TCR intake and 

resolution solution currently being implemented will provide a user interface on the SEC's public 

Web site that will allow the public to submit tips and complaints. This interface is being 

designed dynamically to adapt to the user depending on the knowledge the user has of the 

securities industry and its terminology. 

Section II: Compliance with Goals and Provisions of the Act

II-A. Information Resources Management (IRM) strategic plan and EA plan 

Pursuant to OMB Memorandum M-06-02, “Improving Public Access to and Dissemination of 

Government Information and Using the Federal Enterprise Architecture Data Reference Model,” 

the SEC’s Strategic Plan is accessible from the SEC’s Web site−

http://www.sec.gov/about/secstratplan1015f.pdf. 

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II-B. E-Gov initiative information dissemination 

In addition to the Web sites previously mentioned, the SEC also distributes information via the 

tools available at the following link: 

http://www.data.gov/catalog/tools/category/0/agency/115/filter//sort//page/1/count/25. 

The following tools link to data stored at the SEC site: 

• U.S. GAAP RSS Feed of XBRL Financials – This is an update of the 200 most recent interactive 

data documents submitted under the "Interactive Data to Improve Financial Reporting" rule 

(Release No. 33-9002) using U.S. GAAP as the base taxonomy. The information is refreshed 

every 10 minutes. 

• Search the SEC Web Site for the Latest EDGAR Filings – This listing contains the most recent 

filings for the current official filing date (including filings made after the 5:30 p.m. deadline 

on the previous filing day). Filings may be made Monday through Friday (except U.S. Federal 

holidays). 

• Full-Text Search of EDGAR Filing Data on WWW.SEC.GOV – This page allows users to search 

EDGAR filings during the last 4 years using a full-text search tool. 

• Boolean and Advanced Searching for EDGAR Data on WWW.SEC.GOV – This search allows 

users to enter complex Boolean queries to access all but the most recent day's EDGAR filings 

on www.sec.gov. Filings are from 1994 to present. 

• Key Mutual Fund Disclosures – This search retrieves mutual fund prospectuses (also known as 

“485 filings”). 

• Mutual Fund Proxy Voting Records – This search retrieves annual reports of proxy voting 

records (also known as N-PX filings) for mutual funds and other registered investment 

management companies. 

• Search for Mutual Fund Filings – This search retrieves filings made with the SEC from mutual 

funds. 

• Variable Insurance Products – This search retrieves information on variable insurance 

products that have been filed with the SEC and reside on www.sec.gov. 

II-C. Performance measures and strategic goals 

The SEC developed a strategic plan for the period of FY 2010 to FY 2015, which is accessible 

from the SEC’s Web site via the following link: 

http://www.sec.gov/about/secstratplan1015f.pdf. The plan details strategic goals and the 

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underlying performance measures that will support the accomplishment of those goals. The 

performance measures are tracked on a monthly basis. 

II-D. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 

In response to the requirements of Executive Order 13392, “Improving Agency Disclosure of 

Information,” the SEC appointed a chief FOIA officer, established a FOIA Public Service Center, 

and designated FOIA public liaisons. 

• The SEC’s primary FOIA Web site is located at http://www.sec.gov/foia.shtml. Links to all 

of the agency’s FOIA information can be found there. A link to this important information is 

also conveniently located on the home page of the www.sec.gov site. 

• The public can quickly find information regarding how to make a FOIA request at 

http://www.sec.gov/foia/howfo2.htm. 

• Frequently requested FOIA documents can be found at 

http://www.sec.gov/foia/foiadocs.htm. 

II-E. Federally funded R&D activities 

The SEC does not fund Federal research and development activities. 

II-F. Formal agency agreements with external entities to improve access to and dissemination of 

Government information to the public 

In addition to the SEC’s public Web site (www.sec.gov), the agency continues to substantially 

enhance the public and private sector’s access to and use of EDGAR data using multiple external 

sources, entities and commercial search engines. The SEC’s privatization of the EDGAR Public 

Dissemination Service (PDS) data feed continues to facilitate the world-wide availability of 

EDGAR data to the public from numerous subscribers. These subscribers use a paid, real-time 

feed from the SEC to provide value-added data and services to their clients. Many of these 

subscribers also have subscribers of their own, resulting in a chain reaction of data dissemination 

throughout the world to both large and small data warehouses and value-added facilities. The 

following link provides additional information on the SEC’s privatized PDS feed – 

http://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/ednews/dissemin.htm. 

II-G. NARA-approved records schedules and NARA Bulletin 2006-02 implementation status 

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 207(e) of the E-Government Act of 2002, “Public Access 

to Electronic Information,” the SEC continues to manage records consistent with the 

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requirements of OMB Circular A-130 and guidance from the National Archives and Records 

Administration (NARA). 

During FY 2010, the SEC archivist continued to lead the agency’s effort to comply with the 

detailed requirements of NARA Bulletin 2006-02, “NARA Guidance for Implementing Section 

207(e) of the E-Government Act of 2002.” The SEC’s records management plan and approach 

focus on electronic records management. 

Specifically, the SEC’s records management program staff are systematically revising the 

agency’s records schedule and conducting a comprehensive inventory of all records, regardless 

of media, to ensure that the SEC continues to effectively identify and transfer all electronic 

records requiring permanent retention to NARA. 

The SEC is currently gathering requirements that will result in the implementation of an agencywide electronic records system. 

II-H. Implementation of electronic signatures for secure electronic transactions 

The SEC has the technology in place to implement digital signatures. The agency’s Division of 

Trading and Markets and Office of Information Technology (OIT) are working together on the 

policy implications of offering digital signature capability. OIT will further improve and include 

SEC-wide standards for digital signatures with the proposed rewritten Broker-Dealers Risk 

Assessment (BDRA) system. 

II-I. Enhancement of public participation in regulation development and issuance 

In July 2010, the agency made it easier for the public to provide comments to new rules that will 

be required under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The new 

online process goes well beyond what is legally required and will provide expanded opportunity 

for public comment, as well as greater transparency and accountability. For more information, 

go to http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/regreformcomments.shtml. 

In May 2010, the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the 

formation of a joint committee that will develop recommendations on emerging and ongoing 

issues relating to both agencies. The establishment of the Joint CFTC-SEC Advisory Committee 

on Emerging Regulatory Issues was one of the 20 recommendations included in the agencies' 

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harmonization report issued last year. The new Web page on the SEC’s public site provides 

information on upcoming meetings, joint reports and committee news. 

II-J. Linking Performance Goals to Users of SEC Information and Services 

To accomplish the SEC’s mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, honest, and efficient 

markets, and facilitating capital formation, the SEC provides a wide variety of electronic 

information to members of the public. The SEC and its current Strategic Plan support these 

goals. Beginning in the 1980s, the SEC’s EDGAR system made corporate and financial information 

available to investors, the financial community, and other interested parties in a matter of 

seconds after the information was filed. In the mid 1990s, the agency decided to proactively 

disseminate useful and timely information to the public through its SEC Web site, providing 

robust searches. The SEC continues to improve its Web site and is working to make this 

information even more useful to investors through the use of emergent technologies, such as 

interactive data. 

The SEC has launched Investor.gov, an investor-focused Web site, to help the public invest wisely 

and avoid fraud. In addition, the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy provides a 

variety of services and tools to address the problems and questions for investors via its “Investor 

Information” page on the SEC’s public Web site (http://www.sec.gov/investor.shtml). This 

section of the Web site was upgraded to include document search capability, an enhanced 

section for senior citizens and information for Spanish-speaking investors. 

Investors also have the ability to check the backgrounds of investment advisory firms through the 

SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) system 

(http://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/IapdMain/iapd_SiteMap.aspx). The public may 

search for an investment adviser firm on this Web site and view that firm’s Form ADV. 

Investment advisers file Form ADV to register with the SEC and/or with state governments. Form 

ADV contains information about each investment adviser and its business operations. Form ADV 

also contains disclosure about certain disciplinary events involving the adviser and its key 

personnel. 

In addition, the SEC is taking other steps to ensure that information is widely disseminated to 

investors and the public. For example: 

• Interactive Financial Report Viewer – The SEC is providing free investor tools via the SEC’s 

public Web site to make XBRL tagged data documents accessible and readable by all 

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investors. By using the XBRL viewer, investors can view companies’ financials filed in EDGAR 

using XBRL, including access to the underlying metadata. Beginning in early 2011, investors 

will also be able to view mutual fund companies’ risk/return summary disclosures using 

XBRL. The software tools are available to the public free of charge. The SEC has also made 

the source code and binary distribution freely available at 

http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/xbrl/renderingenginelicense.htm to encourage further 

software development and customization beyond the agency’s current feature set. The SEC 

is also further encouraging the development of XBRL user (i.e., investor) analytics tools by 

requiring that all credit ratings agencies report certain credit ratings in interactive format 

(XBRL). 

• Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds – The SEC’s public Web site contains several RSS feeds 

that allow the public to obtain information about the SEC as soon as it is posted, such as 

proposed rules, news digests, press releases, speeches and public statements. The RSS 

feeds, made available to the public through aggregators, allow individuals to subscribe to 

the specific RSS feeds of interest to them. 

• Open Government Web Page – The SEC’s public site has a new Web page 

(http://www.sec.gov/open) that serves as a portal to the agency’s activities related to the 

Open Government Directive. From this site, users may query and view SEC contract spending 

data reported through USASpending.gov. The query displays data regarding contracts 

awarded by the SEC from fiscal year 2000 to the present and includes: 

-All new procurement actions over $3,000, blanket purchase agreements, and indefinitedelivery indefinite-quantity contracts; 

-All modifications on a reportable contract, including modifications that result in the total 

contract value exceeding the micro-purchase threshold; and 

-All task or delivery orders against any previously reported order, at any dollar value, 

including administrative or “zero dollar” modifications. 

In addition, to facilitate extensive engagement, the Web site gives the public an avenue to 

convey their ideas, suggestions, and opinions regarding contract data to the SEC via a dedicated 

e-mail address. 

The SEC recognizes that OMB is pursuing Government Purchase Card (GPC) activity for display on 

USASpending.gov. The SEC will readdress this process when GPC data becomes available beyond 

the aggregate views currently displayed today. 

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II-K. Error reduction through use of electronic submissions 

The initiative that underscores the SEC’s commitment to the fundamental goals of the EGovernment Act is the Interactive Data Search initiative, also known as the “Next-Generation 

EDGAR System” (http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm). 

The SEC has undertaken a voluntary filer program and an XBRL initiative. Starting with fiscal 

periods ending on or after June 15, 2009, the Commission's rules require the largest U.S. and 

non-U.S. large accelerated filers (i.e., those with $5 billion worldwide public float) who use U.S. 

GAAP to file their quarterly or annual financial statements in XBRL, in addition to the traditional 

HTML/ASCII filing. The requirement will be phased in for all public companies that file certain 

periodic reports with the SEC over a 3-year phase-in period. 

The Commission has also issued rules that will require interactive data reporting by NRSRO 

ratings organizations and mutual fund companies starting in 2011 for their risk/return 

information. In addition to the risk/return rule requirements for mutual fund companies, the 

SEC has also initiated a voluntary filing program to obtain statements of investments from 

mutual fund companies. 

Regulators and the SEC benefit from the ability to process information far more 

comprehensively, quickly, and accurately. It will automate much of what had been a manual 

process of review by regulatory staff. Outliers and exceptions will quickly become apparent as 

will trends and repetitive problems. The agency expects that its internal disclosure reviews for 

regulatory and enforcement purposes also will become more efficient and effective over time. 

To this point, the SEC has recently procured analytical tools that will leverage the XBRL data 

being submitted under the new mandates. These tools are in the very early stages of 

development. 

Additional information on how the SEC is transforming internal operations and enhancing the 

access to and delivery of financial reporting and disclosure information and services to the public 

is available via the following links: 

• XBRL.sec.gov

• 21st Century Disclosure Initiative 

(http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/disclosureinitiative/faq.shtml) 

• www.sec.gov

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II-L. Section 508 compliance 

The SEC has supported Section 508 compliance by−

• Providing a link titled “Accessibility” on the home page of www.sec.gov that links to the 

SEC’s Disability Program Office (http://www.sec.gov/eeoinfo/sec_access.htm). 

• Posting a greater percentage of accessible PDF documents to www.sec.gov. 

• Providing training information, accessibility tools, checklists and information on the best 

practices of other Federal agencies to SEC staff. 

• Conducting quality control tests for all new desktop applications using a combination of 

assistive technology and manual testing procedures. 

The SEC is committed to providing agency information and services to all citizens, including 

those without access to the Internet. Members of the public can obtain copies of filings by 

visiting the SEC Public Reference Room (located in the agency’s Washington, D.C. headquarters) 

in person, or by submitting a request in writing via postal mail, fax, or e-mail to the Office of 

Investor Education and Advocacy. The SEC is also equipped with a TTY machine to receive 

inquiries from the hearing impaired. In addition, the SEC provides information to the disabled by 

interactive Web podcasts and RSS Feeds available via the following hyperlinks so that 

information about these important SEC initiatives is available in different formats: 

• Interactive Data Podcasts – http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/xbrl/idatapodcasts.shtml

• SEC Webcasts (Other Than Open Meetings) – http://www.sec.gov/news/otherwebcasts.shtml

II-M. Cost savings and cost avoidance achieved through implementation of IT programs 

The SEC has an established capital planning and investment control (CPIC) process that requires 

all IT investments to follow a defined select, control and evaluate model as prescribed by the 

Clinger-Cohen Act and OMB Circular A-130. The business focus of new IT projects has been to 

improve business processes, analytical capabilities and disclosure of public information in 

support of the agency’s mission. 

Section 1 of this report previously identified one example of cost and time savings achieved by 

the SEC, the Investor Response Information System implemented by the agency’s Office of 

Investor Education and Advocacy. Since its roll-out, the SEC has realized improvements in 

system reliability, efficiency and accuracy. 

In this new paperless environment, OIEA is better equipped to handle investor contacts more 

efficiently. The new system provides greater transparency into the case history of files and an 

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enhanced ability to analyze investor trends. This analysis is useful for assisting investors as well 

as informing other SEC offices and divisions of investor concerns and perspectives. 

A long-standing goal of the SEC has been to promote the development of third-party software 

tools that allow filings to be sent to the SEC through EDGAR. The SEC provides technical 

specifications for software vendors to build tools that assist filers in complying with SEC 

regulations. Many third-party tools are used by registrants today to file with the SEC. 

The interactive data initiative is intended, in part, to stimulate software development for the 

viewing, dissemination and analysis of tagged data. The SEC has released several free software 

prototypes and the related source code via its public Web site (www.sec.gov). This has been 

done to encourage the marketplace to create additional software with even more extensive 

features. Additionally, the SEC has released the XBRL validation errors generated by EDGAR to 

promote software development with the twin goals of improving the comprehensiveness and 

accuracy of the data submitted to the SEC and ensuring data software developers have 

consistent rules. By not competing with the private market and private software developers, the 

SEC hopes to transfer development costs to the commercial sector and reduce its overall 

investment costs.