Q4 WEB – An Important First Step in the New Reg. FD Web Disclosure Model
Every now and then something happens in the market that almost demands for me to shout from the rooftops about what we’re doing here at Q4.
On August 1 the SEC issued new guidance that deems corporate web sites and blogs as compliant with Reg. FD providing that certain criteria are met. This allows a public company to disclose information on their corporate web site, without having to issue a press release through an approved news wire service.
What’s bad for the newswires, whom have long enjoyed a guaranteed flow of business, is great news for issuers who stand to save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in newswire fees. Considering the economic climate, this couldn’t happen at a better time, as companies look to trim the fat.
Many issuers are adopting a ‘wait and see’ attitude, looking to their peers to see how the market responds to the new Reg. FD web disclosure model. Others are starting now to transition their web sites toward Reg. FD compliance. Darrell Heaps, CEO of Q4 Web Systems, wrote an interesting blog post on how to make your web site a ‘public’ disclosure channel under new SEC guidance and Reg. FD.
Q4 Web Systems has long recognized the importance of web disclosure and the inevitability of this new legislation. More than 3 years ago we built Q4 WEB – a fully-featured IR web content and disclosure management system that is a perfect response to the SEC’s new guidance. Here’s why:
1. Internal Control – In a Reg. FD web disclosure model, issuers need to have complete, easy internal control over web site disclosure – they can’t risk a reliance on internal or external support to update site content in order to ensure timely, universal disclosure. Q4 WEB provides easy, non technical control over all site content, navigation and functionality.
2. ‘Push’ Technology – Ensuring that information is disseminated in a way that ‘makes it available to the securities marketplace in general’ as the new Reg. FD requires, means that companies need ‘push’ technologies to make it easy and fast to distribute their disclosure. Q4 WEB integrates automated email alerts and RSS feeds to ensure that subscribers are notified as new content is updated. (Also see Darrell’s post re: Notice and Access press releases.)
3. Documented Controls – If you are posting material information to your site as an alternative to posting it in an Exchange ACT report, as the new Reg. FD allows, you need to have documented controls associated to your site content to ensure that information is not posted without the necessary approvals. Q4 WEB integrates automatic workflow and approvals and captures all changes and associated approvals in a verifiable audit trail.
4. Searchable Web Site Record – In a Reg. FD web disclosure model, you would want the ability to demonstrate the specific content that appeared on your web site at any given point in time in order to respond to regulatory or investor inquiries. You’d also want evidence of how easily the information could be accessed by the user to demonstrate that it wasn’t purposely ‘buried’. This requires a ‘real-time’ comprehensive, searchable record of all site content. It also requires a system that can actually generate a replica of your site to show exactly how content could be accessed at the time in question. Q4 WEB is the only solution in the market to provide ‘Time Shifting’ which allows you to instantly generate fully functioning replicas of your site from any point in time – right down to the second –complete with all downloads, presentations and content updated through data feeds.
5. Enterprise Level Hosting & System Monitoring – A Reg. FD web disclosure model can significantly increase the amount of traffic to your web site. To ensure your site is always available and fast loading it should be hosted in an enterprise level data center with extensive system monitoring. Our SAS 70 Type II Certified data centre is designed to withstand the highest levels of web traffic, is monitored 24/7 and is fully redundant. Using Q4 WEB your web site is always available and fast, no matter how many people are hitting your site.
Q4 WEB offers an important first step for issuers looking to transition to a Reg. FD web disclosure model. Of course there are other requirements to ensure the same market awareness for your message. And additional developments and new technologies will continue to spring up to address this very important regulatory change. Stay tuned to Q4 Blog for details!
Related posts:
- Web site records important to new Reg. FD web disclosure
- Dispelling myths about Reg FD & Web Disclosure
- How to make your website a “public” disclosure channel under new SEC guidance and RegFD
- Maintaining Accurate Web Site Disclosure Records
- Web Disclosure Adoption On the Rise
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great post, thanks