The Securities Act of 1933 (âSecurities Actâ) was designed to prevent misrepresentation, deceit and other fraudulent acts and practices in the sale of securities. Section 5 of the Securities Act requires that a registration statement be filed before any security is publicly offered, and that the registration statement be effective before any security is sold. Section 7 of the Securities Act and Schedule A outlines the information that must be contained in a registration statement. Section 7 gives the Commission the authority to vary such disclosure for various classes of issuers and securities. The Commission has used its statutory authority to develop a number of specialized registration statement forms that tailor disclosure requirements based on the type of offering, issuer, or other parameters, thereby eliminating burdensome and unnecessary requirements while maintaining investor protection.
Form S-3 (17 CFR 239.13) is a short-form securities registration statement that is available to issuers that meet certain registrant and transaction eligibility requirements under the form.
The purpose of the information collection is to provide disclosure of material financial and other information with which investors may evaluate the merits of securities in order to
make investment decisions.
The decrease in burden hours of 18,717 hours is due to a decrease in the estimated number of annual Form S-3 responses (from 1,651 to 1,467). The increase in cost burden of $74,690,251 is due to an increase in the Commissionâs estimate of the cost to issuers of outside professionals (from $400 per hour to $600 per hour). That increase is partially offset by the estimated decrease in the in number of annual Form S-3 responses (as described above).
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.