The Securities and Exchange Commission has reduced its fees for securities transactions and registrations. Beginning this week, the cost for public companies and other issuers to register securities with the SEC has been reduced by 71.3 percent, and fees on securities transactions have been reduced by 50.2 percent.
The SEC’s announced the rate change last year, but the effective date of the new rates was delayed by several months because of a hold-up in how Congress accounted for the SEC in its appropriations. The SEC said last May that it would be cutting its fees for fiscal year 2007 by $1 billion. The commission had planned for the rate cut to go into effect last October.
On February 15, President Bush signed a resolution to allow the fee cuts, after the SEC had requested legislative help. The SEC adjusts its rates every year under the Investor and Capital Markets Fee Relief Act. The SEC will announce the new fee rates for fiscal year 2008 by April 30, 2007. The earliest those fees will be effective is October 1, 2007.
Earlier this month, President Bush asked Congress to give the SEC only a small increase in next year’s budget, 3 percent higher than last year. In its press releasing the fee cuts late last week, the SEC said the adjusted rates will not affect its funding.