Time to Fix the Form: Statement on Further Extension of Compliance Date for Form PF

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Brian [Daly] and Rob [Fisher]. Congratulations, Brian, on your first rulemaking as Director of the Division of Investment Management. I support extending the compliance date for the February 8, 2024 amendments to Form PF[1] to October 1, 2026.[2] I welcome today's action as evidence of a commitment to conduct a substantive review of Form PF and, if there are substantial questions of fact, law, and policy, to take any further appropriate actions, which may include proposing new amendments to Form PF.[3] I would, have preferred a longer extension to better accommodate a fundamental rethinking of the form to ensure its consistency with law and rationality.

As I noted in my dissent to the adoption of the amendments we are extending, "Form PF has not-so-subtly morphed into an all-purpose means to gather information from the private market under the seemingly limitless rubric of systemic risk."[4] Through Form PF, the Commissions send private funds on a scavenger hunt for an odd collection of data points, some quite sensitive, some requiring extensive work and expense by funds to assemble, and many of questionable relevance to systemic risk or investor-protection objectives. The utility of the data to the Financial Stability Oversight Council ("FSOC") has never been clear. A vigorously competitive market is the best guard against stupid, harmful, and careless behavior by private funds, and costly regulatory mandates like Form PF deter competition. Regulators might sift through Form PF information dumps to detect emerging systemic risks, but a few key data points would probably be more useful indicators of systemic risk. Moreover, the less confidential information we collect, the less we have to protect.

I want to thank the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and SEC staff in the Divisions of Investment Management and Economic and Risk Analysis and Office of General Counsel for their quick work in drafting the extension release. My only question is why we are not proposing a longer delay.