Regulation S-K

Regulation S-K is a prescribed regulation under the US Securities Act of 1933 that lays out reporting requirements for various SEC filings used by public companies. Companies are also often called issuers (issuing or contemplating issuing shares), filers (entities that must file reports with the SEC) or registrants (entities that must register (usually shares) with the SEC).

In a company's history, Regulation S-K first applies with the Form S-1 that companies use to register their securities with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as the "registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933". Thereafter, Regulation S-K applies to the ongoing reporting requirements in documents such as forms 10-K and 8-K.

Regulation S-K applies to:

A public company is initially impacted by Regulation S-K with its IPO (initial public offering of shares). Form S-1 contains the basic business and financial information on an issuer with respect to a specific securities offering. Investors may use the prospectus to consider the merits of an offering and make educated investment decisions. A prospectus is one of the main documents used by an investor to research a company prior to an initial public offering.

Form S-1 has an OMB approval number of 3235–0065 and the online form is only 8 pages. However, the simplicity of the form's design is belied by the OMB Office's figure of the estimated average burden – 972 hours. "SEC Form S-1" (PDF). 

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