For the first time, Securities and Exchange Commission information about companies and mutual funds is now fully searchable online.
Investors and analysts can now search the full text of every SEC document filed by companies within the last two years, the agency announced. Searchers will also be able to easily identify and retrieve mutual fund filings by fund or share class.
SEC Chairman Christopher Cox made the announcement in his opening remarks at the agency's Interactive Data Roundtable in Washington. "This is a giant leap for America's 90 million investors toward tapping the full potential of the Internet to provide customized financial information," Cox said, in a statement.
The company filing search engine enables real-time, full-text searches of filings on the entirety of the Edgar database of company filings. The SEC is asking users of the Web site feature to supply feedback, including suggestions for additional functions, so further improvements to the site can be made.
In the past, searching for information on particular funds and particular share classes within funds was very difficult, because a single prospectus might contain information about many mutual funds and share classes. The new search capability was made possible when the SEC recently required that filings contain a unique numerical identifier for each fund and share class.
The new search tool is available at
Previously on WebCPA:
