The SEC’s Division of Investment Management is working on rule amendments that will require that registered investment advisers keep all their rerds in an electronic format, which would update an outdated rule.

The SEC announced a few years ago that it will update its books and rerds rules to allow for email and the inter As part of that move, the staff at the Division of Investment Management is working on amendments for Rule 204-2.

“Firms are currently allowed to keep electronic rerds, but the SEC is looking to bring the rule into the 21st century,” said Jay Baris, a partner at the law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel.

The move is the latest push by the Chrisher x-led SEC toward an electronic age. x, chairman of the SEC, has pushed for the mmission to adopt eXtensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, on annual reports and other disclosures for publicly traded stocks, as well as mutual funds. XBRL is a type of interactive data that allows user to click to obtain addition background on a specific category of information, such as earnings or expenses.

Recently, the mmission proposed to allow firms to send mutual fund prospectuses to investors via the inter Previously, they were required to only send them in written form.

Given the advances in technology, many firms have adopted electronic rerds, and the SEC has had no objections to them. The problem, Baris said, is that the mmission never offered any guidance for financial rerds. The regulator simply viewed electronic rerds as another format for existing reports.

Andrew Donohue, director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, has publically said that his department would be heading into an electronic era. He has indicated that the SEC would likely begin to require that investment advisers maintain rerds in an electronic format. The staff is also nsidering a rule that would require investment advisers to keep electronic, searchable rerds of managed acunts, client lists, and ethical breaches.

There are still some firms that use written rerds. Baris said that if the rule goes through, those firms will have to modernize.

Since the staff is working on the amendments now, there is not timeline on when they will present them for a mmission vote. In addition, SEC staff members have said they anticipate the mmission voting on the rule proposal for the new books and rerds early next year.