On July 7, 2026, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, part of the Office of Management and Budget within the Executive Office of the President, released the 2026 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, reporting on potential rulemaking topics that administrative agencies, including the SEC, will consider. In addition to new rulemaking topics, the SEC’s 2026 rulemaking agenda includes numerous topics in the Prerule and Proposed Rule Stages that appeared in the Spring 2025 agenda, which at the time was the first agenda issued under SEC Chair Paul Atkins and reflected a substantial shift in the SEC’s rulemaking priorities. In a statement accompanying the SEC’s 2026 rulemaking agenda, Chair Atkins stated that “proposed reforms aim to reduce compliance burdens and further facilitate capital formation in our public markets, while maintaining critical investor protections.” For some of the proposed rule stage topics highlighted below, the SEC has recently issued a rule proposal.
Continuing Proposed Rule Stage topics. Topics from the Spring 2025 agenda that remain in the Proposed Rule Stage are highlighted below.
- Several crypto asset-related topics related to (1) the offer and sale of crypto assets; (2) the trading of crypto assets on alternative trading systems and national securities exchanges; (3) the custody of advisory client and fund assets, including crypto assets; (4) the regulation of transfer agents, including rules related to crypto assets and the use of distributed ledger technology by transfer agents; and (5) the broker-dealer financial responsibility, recordkeeping and reporting rules to address the application of these rules to crypto assets;
- Updating the exempt offering pathways, including potential amendments to the definition of accredited investor under the Securities Act of 1933;
- Rationalizing disclosure practices to facilitate material disclosure by companies and shareholders’ access to that information;
- Additional initiatives to update disclosure and reporting requirements to reduce compliance burdens, including amendments to Form N-PORT portfolio-holding reporting requirements applicable to registered funds which were proposed in February 2026, and to modernize the shareholder proposal requirements under Rule 14a-8 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934;
- Reducing the compliance burden of smaller regulated entities, including rule proposals addressing issuers categorized as “emerging growth companies,” as well as “small entities” definitions under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 which were proposed in January 2026; and
- Expanding the availability of certain exemptive rules, including Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933 regarding restricted securities and Rule 17a-7 under the Investment Company Act regarding cross trading.
New Proposed Rule Stage topics. The topics listed below are new to the SEC’s rulemaking agenda in 2026 and are in the Proposed Rule stage.
- Registered offerings reform to modernize the shelf registration process, which was proposed in May 2026;
- Enhancing retail investor exposure to private markets through registered investment companies and allowing investment advisers to charge performance fees to an expanded set of clients;
- New exemptive rule under the Investment Company Act to allow funds to lend securities using an affiliated lending agent that is compensated based on a share of the securities lending revenue;
- Additional initiatives to update disclosure and reporting requirements and to reduce compliance burdens, including (1) allowing Exchange Act reporting companies to report on a semiannual basis; (2) modernizing certain rules regarding the proxy solicitation process; (3) recission of climate-related disclosure rules adopted in March 2024 and which the SEC ceased defending in court in March 2025; (4) reducing Form PF reporting requirements used by private fund advisers, which was proposed in April 2026; (5) amending investment adviser recordkeeping requirements under Rule 204-2 under the Investment Advisers Act; (6) amending Rule 13f-2 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 regarding reporting of short positions on new Form SHO, for which the SEC has issued exemptive relief to delay compliance requirements; and (7) expanding the use of electronic delivery for information required to be delivered under the federal securities laws, which was proposed in July 2026; and
- Reforming investment adviser pay-to-play prohibitions under Rule 206(4)-5 under the Investment Advisers Act.
Finally, a new rule regarding customer identification program (CIP) requirements for registered investment advisers and exempt reporting advisers was proposed in May 2024. However, this topic is in the SEC’s Long-Term Actions Stage as the SEC and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) intend to revisit the May 2024 joint proposed rule.
The full list of potential rulemaking topics is available here. Chairman Atkins’ statement on the 2026 Agenda is available here.
