SEC holds pre-proposal conference for EDGAR contract

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 2:36 p.m. Feb. 2 to reflect that the request for proposals is not in draft form.

Securities and Exchange Commission officials will hold a pre-proposal conference Feb. 8 regarding a request for proposals on revamping the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR) system.

The agency will hold the conference at its headquarters at 10 a.m. Interested parties must submit names of their attendees by Feb. 6.

EDGAR is the commission’s backbone system to facilitate efficient filings of publicly traded corporations, provide public access to those filings and assist staff with their review and audit responsibilities. The system was planned and tested in the 1980s, but it did not become operational until 1992.

More than 28,000 registered entities and individual filers submit about 15 million to 18 million pages of statements, reports and other filings to the SEC each year.

In the wake of recent financial scandals and passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, SEC officials are seeking to make more enhancements to EDGAR, such as allowing companies to voluntarily file their financial information in Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) format.

Using XBRL would allow investors to conduct real-time analysis of such data.