On January 18, 2018, the SEC introduced the Diversity Assessment Report for Entities Regulated by the SEC which complements the Joint Standards issued by the SEC and other federal agencies in 2015. The report is designed to provide guidance to SEC-regulated entities in conducting self-assessments of their diversity policies and practices and includes a template for submitting their self-assessment information to the SEC. As with the use of the Joint Standards, conducting diversity self-assessments and providing such information to the SEC are voluntary. The SEC may use submitted self-assessment information to identify policies and practices that have been successfully adopted by SEC-regulated entities and may publish such information in its annual report to Congress. However, the annual report to Congress will not include any sensitive or confidential business information of regulated entities and entities may also request confidential treatment of such information they submitted. For more information, see https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-7.
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