Data on round-lot and odd-lot trading on the New York exchanges are released weekly. The other stock market data mentioned above, as well as these weekly series, are published regularly in the Commission's Statistical Bulletin. OPINIONS OF THE COMMISSION Formal administrative proceedings under the statutes administered by the Commission generally culminate in the issuance of an opinion and order. Where hearings are held, the hearing officer who presides normally makes an initial decision following the hearings, unless such decision is waived by the parties. Under an amended procedure which went into effect in April 1966, the initial decision includes an appropriate order. If Commission review is not sought, and if the case is not called up for review on the Commission's own initiative, the initial decision becomes the final decision of the Commission. In those instances where it prepares its own decision, upon review or waiver of an initial decision, the Commission, or the individual Commissioner to whom a case may be assigned for the preparation of an opinion, is generally assisted by the Office of Opinions and Review. This Office is directly responsible to the Commission and is completely independent of the operating divisions of the Commission, consistent with the principle of separation of functions embodied in the Administrative Procedure Act. Where the parties to a proceeding waive their right to such separation, the operating division which participated in the proceeding may assist in the drafting of the Commission's decision. The Commission's opinions are publicly released and are distributed to the press and to persons on the Commission's mailing list. In addition, they are printed and published periodically by the Government Printing Office in bound volumes entitled "Securities and Exchange Commission Decisions and Reports." Procedures for Publishing Hearing Examiners' Initial Decisions The Commission recently adopted procedures to make the initial decisions of its hearing examiners more readily available to the public. 56 In accordance with the Commission's Rules of Practice, an announcement of the issuance of an initial decision in public administrative proceedings is carried in the Commission's News Digest. Copies of such decisions will be made available in the public reference room of the Commission's headquarters office, and in each regional and branch office. Those initial decisions which become the decisions of the Commission, and which the Commission determines are of prec 56 Securities Exchange Act Release No. 7942 (August 23, 1966). edential significance, will be published in whole or in part in the Securities and Exchange Commission Decisions and Reports. In administrative proceedings which are conducted privately, the initial decision will not be made publicly available, unless the Commission otherwise orders, until the period within which review may be sought or ordered has expired and no review has been sought or ordered. Thereupon, except as noted below, the fact that the initial decision has been issued and become final will be announced by the Secretary, and copies will be made available and included in the Decisions and Reports as described above. Initial decisions in private proceedings which grant an application for confidential treatment or conclude that the evidence does not sustain the violations charged will generally not be made public. Only a limited supply of initial decisions is printed at the time of their issuance. Requests for copies will be honored until the supply is exhausted; thereafter, copies may be obtained only upon payment of the prevailing rate for reproductions. DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION As the discussion in prior sections of this Report indicates, most large corporations in which there is a substantial public investor interest have filed registration statements or applications under the Securities Exchange Act or the Securities Act with the Commission and are required to file annual and other periodic reports. The financial and other data included in these documents receive widespread dissemination through the medium of securities manuals and other financial publications, thus becoming available to broker-dealer and investment adviser firms, trust departments and other financial institutions and, through them, to public investors generally. Various activities of the Commission facilitate public dissemination of corporate and other information. Among these is the issuance of a daily "News Digest" which contains (1) a resume of each proposal for the public offering of securities for which a Securities Act registration statement is filed; (2) a listing of those companies whose shares are traded over-the-counter which register with the Commission and of all companies which file interim reports reflecting significant corporate developments; (3) a summary of all orders, decisions, rules and rule proposals issued by the Commission; (4) a brief report of court actions resulting from the Commission's law enforcement program; and (5) a brief reference to each release issued by the Commission in its statistical studies. During the year, the News Digest reported information concerning among other things 1,697 registration statements filed under the Securities Act, 950 orders, decisions, rules and rule proposals, 272 court enforcement actions, and 74 statistical releases. 238-643-66—11 The News Digest is made immediately available to the press, and it is also reprinted and distributed by the Government Printing Office, on a subscription basis, to some 2,350 investors, securities firms, practicing lawyers and others. In addition, the Commission maintains mailing lists for the distribution of the full text of its orders, decisions, rules and rule proposals. During the year, individual members of the Commission and numerous staff officers addressed various professional, business and other groups and participated in panel discussions of the laws administered by the Commission, the rules and regulations thereunder, and the policies, procedures and practices of the Commission. These speeches and discussions are helpful in promoting a better understanding of the functions and activities of the Commission, thus facilitating compliance with the laws and rules. In addition, they stimulate public discussion of ways and means of improving the administrative process. Information Available for Public Inspection The many thousands of registration statements, applications, declarations and annual and other periodic reports filed with the Commission each year are available for public inspection at the Commission's principal office in Washington, D.C. In addition, copies of recent reports filed by companies having securities listed on exchanges other than the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange, and copies of current reports of many non-listed companies, may be examined in the Commission's New York Regional Office. Recent reports filed by companies whose securities are listed on the New York and American Stock Exchanges may be examined in the Commission's Chicago Regional Office. Moreover, there are available for examination in all regional offices copies of prospectuses relating to recent public offerings of securities registered under the Securities Act; and all regional offices have copies of broker-dealer annual financial reports and Regulation A letters of notification filed in their respective regions. Reports of companies whose securities are listed on the various exchanges may be seen at the respective exchange offices. In addition, the registration statements filed pursuant to the new Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available for public inspection in the principal office in Washington, D.C., the New York, Chicago and San Francisco Regional Offices, and the regional office nearest the registrant. In order to facilitate wider dissemination of financial and other information contained in corporate reports filed with the Commission under the Federal securities laws (an objective strongly urged by the Special Study Report), the Commission has arranged to take standing orders, on an experimental basis, for photocopies of annual reports filed on Form 10-K. This service may be extended later to other reports, depending upon public reception and the experience gained in supplying copies of annual reports. Under the existing contract with a printing company for the reproduction of material in the Commission's public files in response to requests of members of the public, photocopies may be obtained at a cost of 10 cents per page for pages not exceeding 81/2" x 14" in size. The detailed per page prices are given in Release No. 34-7910, which may be obtained from the Publications Unit of the Commission. The charge for each certification of any document by the Commission is $2. In order to make corporate reports more readily available for examination by interested members of the public, the Commission has also made arrangements for the Form 10-K annual reports and Form 10 registration statements to be placed on open shelves in the public area of its Public Reference Room in Washington, D.C., thus making these reports available for immediate inspection. There are presently three coin-operated photocopiers in the Public Reference Room to enable visitors to make immediate reproductions of reports at a cost of 25 cents per page. (The New York Regional Office has a similar machine.) Each year many thousands of requests for photocopies of and information from the public files of the Commission are received in the Public Reference Room in Washington, D.C. During the year 6,110 persons examined material on file in the Washington, D.C. office, and several thousand others examined files in the New York and Chicago regional offices. More than 15,400 searches were made for individuals requesting information and approximately 2,714 letters were written with respect to information required. PUBLICATIONS In addition to the daily News Digest, and releases concerning Commission action under the Acts administered by it and litigation involving securities violations, the Commission issues a number of other publications, including the following: Weekly : Weekly Trading Data on New York Exchanges: Round-lot and odd-lot transactions effected on the New York and American Stock Exchanges (information is also included in the Statistical Bulletin). Monthly: Statistical Bulletin." Official Summary of Securities Transactions and Holdings of Officers, Directors and Principal Stockholders." Footnotes on following page. Quarterly: Financial Report, U.S. Manufacturing Corporations (jointly with the Federal Trade Commission.) (Statistical Series Release summarizing this report is available from the Publications Unit.) Plant and Equipment Expenditures of U.S. Corporations (jointly with the New Securities Offerings. Volume and Composition of Individuals' Saving. Working Capital of U.S. Corporations. Stock Transactions of Financial Institutions. Annually : Annual Report of the Commission. " Securities Traded on Exchanges under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. List of Companies Registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Classification, Assets and Location of Registered Investment Companies under the Investment Company Act of 1940. ¿ Private Noninsured Pension Funds (assets available quarterly in the Statistical Bulletin). Directory of Companies Filing Annual Reports. " Other Publications: Decisions and Reports of the Commission." Judicial Decisions. " A Study of Mutual Funds (by The Wharton School). " Report of Special Study of Securities Markets. " Accounting Series Releases-Compilation of 1–89. " Securities and Exchange Commission-The Work of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Commission Report on Public Policy Implications of Investment Company Growth.a ORGANIZATION During fiscal year 1966 and shortly thereafter, certain organizational changes were effected in accordance with the Commission's policy of continuing review of its organization and functional alignments. In April 1966, the staff and functions of the Branch of Market Analysis of the Division of Trading and Markets were transferred to the Office of Policy Research, to be consolidated with the Commission's economic and statistical studies and the compilation of data on program activities. At the same time, the staff and functions of the Chief Counsel's Office in the Office of Policy Research were transferred to the Office of Regulation in the Division of Trading and Markets, to assist directly in that Division's responsibilities for the regulation of the securities market. In addition, two Associate Directors were appointed for the Division of Trading and Markets, one to be responsible for Markets and Regulation and the other for Enforcement. • Must be ordered from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 20402. This document is available in photocopy form. Purchasers are billed by the printing company which prepares the photocopies. |