Comment Letters on the Form PF Proposal: Critiques of the PE Reporting Threshold, New Information Requests and Definitions (Part Three of Three)

Under the pretense of monitoring for systemic risks posed by the private funds industry, the SEC recently issued proposed amendments to Form PF (Proposal) to bolster information reporting to the regulator. By the end of the prescribed comment period, 127 comment letters were submitted that alternated between praising the intent behind the Proposal and questioning its execution. That applied not only to the new information that PE sponsors would be expected to report annually in Section 4 but also to changes the SEC failed to make, such as updating certain key definitions used in Form PF. This three-part series examines comment letters submitted on the Proposal and summarizes their salient points in light of impending final Form PF reforms from the SEC. This third article synthesizes suggestions for how to reform the Proposal’s new annual reporting items and lower threshold for PE sponsors, as well as to modernize certain defined terms. The first article identified broader observations in the comment letters about the scope, intent and purpose of the Proposal. The second article offered suggestions to revise the stress-related reporting events in the new Section 6 of Form PF that would require reporting within one business day. For coverage of other recent SEC rulemaking initiatives, see our three-part series on the SEC proposed private fund rules: “Overview of the Proposal and the Importance of Industry Comments” (May 24, 2022); “General Observations” (May 31, 2022); and “Rule‑Specific Concerns and Next Steps” (Jun. 7, 2022).

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