Good morning.  I would like to thank staff in the Division of Corporation Finance for their work on this final rule on exhibit hyperlinks and HyperText Markup Language or HTML formatting.  In particular, I would like to thank Sean Harrison, Felicia Kung, and Betsy Murphy.

This rule should make it much easier to access exhibits to a company’s registration statement or periodic report.  In many cases, exhibits are incorporated by reference, meaning that they are not attached to a current filing but were filed sometime in the past.  In order to find an exhibit, an individual would need to embark on a time-consuming search of a company’s historic filings on EDGAR, which is the Commission’s repository for company filings.

Today’s rule will eliminate the inefficiencies associated with such a search process.  It will require companies that file registration statements and reports subject to the exhibit requirements under Item 601 of Regulation S-K, or certain foreign companies that file Forms F-10 or 20-F, to include a hyperlink to each exhibit listed in their exhibit index.

In addition, in order to support functional hyperlinks, today’s final rule would amend Rule 105 of Regulation S-T and require registrants to file in HTML format all registration statements or periodic reports that are subject to certain exhibit filing requirements.[1]  The rule would allow a one year phase-in period from the effective date for non-accelerated and smaller reporting company ASCII filers.[2]

I look forward to working on similar projects and improvements that make disclosure more accessible, and create efficiencies for both investors and companies going forward.

Thank you.