Wall St regulator proposes scrapping paper forms

(Reuters) -The top U.S. markets regulator on Wednesday proposed replacing some paper-based forms with digitized disclosures to modernize how broker-dealers, stock exchanges, clearing agencies and others report their activities to the government.

At a public meeting, the Securities and Exchange Commission's five members unanimously voted in favor of the proposal, which also would allow electronic signatures and machine-readable data for some of the forms to be submitted to the agency's heavily used EDGAR internet database for securities filings.

SEC staff members told the meeting that the changes would make important data more readily accessible to agency officials and reduce costs for market actors.

The forms include annual compliance reports by securities-based swap dealers and risk assessments by broker-dealers. Under the proposal, securities exchanges could update their websites when they begin trading in new derivatives, something for which the existing form would be canceled altogether.

The proposal is subject to a period of public commentary prior to any vote on its adoption. Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce said she was concerned the volume and intensity of SEC rulemaking might hinder the public from submitting the most helpful feedback.

"We want to get these proposals right and we need commenters' help but commenters are overwhelmed at the moment," she said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the SEC had postponed plans for Wednesday's open meeting to include a vote on adopting a proposal requiring money mangers in the $20 trillion private asset management industry to notify authorities of threats to the stability of the global financial system.

The SEC decided the proposed text was not ready for adoption, a spokesperson said, citing a particularly busy period in prior weeks.

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison; Editing by Richard Chang and Barbara Lewis)