Several trade associations, along with the Managed Funds Association (MFA) have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to extend a reporting deadline for six months.
The organizations said delaying the deadline for amended Form PF would allow them to address technical challenges and ensure high-quality reporting.
“A modest extension will enable alternative asset managers to address technical challenges and ensure high-quality, consistent reporting to the SEC and CFTC. The industry has worked to comply with the new form, but the implementation timeline is unrealistic and impractical,” said Bryan Corbett, MFA President and CEO.
The amendments to Form PF adopted by the SEC and CFTC in February require additional disclosures for alternative asset managers, the groups said. The rushed implementation timeline has created compliance challenges, they alleged.
The associations said the XML schema necessary to complete the form has not been finalized, and many firms are also preparing for other reports leading to overlapping regulatory deadlines. These challenges, combined with end-of-year system freezes limit firms’ ability to implement and test reporting changes in time for current compliance dates, the associations said.
“Given the imminent compliance date for the new Form PF and certain inconsistencies and incomplete information in the paper form, the industry is using its best judgment and making more than a few assumptions in designing and building systems to report new Form PF,” the letter said. “We strongly believe that granting registrants with a compliance date extension will result in more uniform and consistent systemic risk data for 2024, as well as more meaningful, useful, and higher quality data for 2025.
“This also will reduce the likelihood of the Commissions potentially compiling inconsistent and misleading data,” the letter continued. “Furthermore, the absence of changes to technical specifications by the compliance date increases the likelihood that initial builds may have to be redesigned and rebuilt later when reporting guidance is ultimately issued or technical specifications are changed.”