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SEC Grants Exemptive Relief From Inline XBRL Requirements for Five Financial Reporting Forms

The Securities and Exchange Commission is exempting certain broker-dealer, clearing agency, and security-based swap entity filings from structured data formatting rules adopted in December 2024.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission issued an order on September 11, 2026, granting exemptive relief from Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language (Inline XBRL) requirements for specific portions of several financial regulatory forms. The relief is granted pursuant to the Commission's authority under Section 36(a)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Background: The December 2024 Rulemaking

The exemptive relief responds to rule amendments the Commission adopted on December 16, 2024, published in the Federal Register on January 21, 2025. Those amendments required that certain Commission forms and submissions be filed or submitted electronically, and further required that some of those forms be filed in Inline XBRL structured data format. According to the order, Inline XBRL is a structured data language in which document data can be tagged, making the document machine-readable. The Commission stated that this functionality is intended to enable more efficient retrieval, aggregation, and comparison against different filers and time periods, as compared to an unstructured document.

Forms and Submissions Covered by the Exemption

The December 2024 rule amendments imposed Inline XBRL requirements on five categories of forms and submissions, all of which are now subject to the exemptive relief:

  • Form CA-1 — specifically Schedule A and Exhibits C, F, H, J, K, L, M, O, R, and S, which constitute the application for registration (or amendment thereto) or for exemption from registration filed by clearing agencies.
  • Form 1 — specifically Exhibits D, E (in part), and I, which constitute the application for registration (or amendment thereto) or for exemption from registration filed by national securities exchanges.
  • Form X-17A-5 Part III — the annual reports filed by broker-dealers (including over-the-counter derivatives dealers), as well as security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants (collectively, "SBS Entities") for which there is no prudential regulator.
  • Item 4 of Form 17-H — the risk assessment report filed by certain larger broker-dealers.
  • The annual compliance report of an SBS Entity — which must be prepared and signed by the SBS Entity's chief compliance officer (CCO) pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 15fk-1(c).

Mechanism of Relief

The Commission is granting the exemptive relief to registrants under Section 36(a)(1) of the Exchange Act. The order was issued on September 11, 2026, and published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2026. The relevant regulatory provisions amended by the December 2024 rulemaking span multiple parts of the Code of Federal Regulations, including 17 CFR 232.405, 17 CFR 240.6a-1(e), 17 CFR 240.17a-5, 17 CFR 240.17a-12, 17 CFR 240.18a-7, 17 CFR 240.17h-2T, and 17 CFR 240.15fk-1.

Related

Sources

14 cited

Every hard fact above is grounded in and cited to a primary source record.

  1. The Commission issued the exemptive relief order on September 11, 2026.

    federalregister.gov

  2. The order was published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2026.

    federalregister.gov

  3. The exemptive relief is granted pursuant to Section 36(a)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

    federalregister.gov

  4. On December 16, 2024, the Commission adopted rule amendments requiring certain Commission forms or submissions to be filed or submitted electronically.

    federalregister.gov

  5. The December 2024 rule amendments were published in the Federal Register on January 21, 2025.

    federalregister.gov

  6. The rule amendments also required some forms to be filed or submitted in Inline XBRL structured data format.

    federalregister.gov

  7. Inline XBRL is a structured data language in which data in documents can be tagged, making the document machine-readable.

    federalregister.gov

  8. The Commission stated that Inline XBRL functionality is intended to enable more efficient retrieval, aggregation, and comparison against different filers and time periods, as compared to an unstructured document.

    federalregister.gov

  9. The Inline XBRL requirement applies to Schedule A and Exhibits C, F, H, J, K, L, M, O, R, and S to Form CA-1, the application for registration or exemption from registration filed by clearing agencies.

    federalregister.gov

  10. The Inline XBRL requirement applies to Exhibits D, E (in part), and I to Form 1, the application for registration or exemption from registration filed by national securities exchanges.

    federalregister.gov

  11. The Inline XBRL requirement applies to Item 4 of Form 17-H, the risk assessment report filed by certain larger broker-dealers.

    federalregister.gov

  12. The Inline XBRL requirement applies to the annual compliance report of an SBS Entity, which must be prepared and signed by the SBS Entity's chief compliance officer pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 15fk-1(c).

    federalregister.gov

  13. The amended rule provisions include 17 CFR 232.405, 17 CFR 240.6a-1(e), 17 CFR 240.17a-5, 17 CFR 240.17a-12, 17 CFR 240.18a-7, 17 CFR 240.17h-2T, and 17 CFR 240.15fk-1.

    federalregister.gov

  14. The Inline XBRL requirement applies to Form X-17A-5 Part III, annual reports filed by broker-dealers (including over-the-counter derivatives dealers), as well as security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants for which there is no prudential regulator.

    federalregister.gov

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