Form 15-15D Files Dataset

The Form 15-15D Files Dataset collects every EDGAR submission of Form 15-15D — the SEC's "Certification and Notice of Termination of Registration Under Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or Suspension of Duty to File Reports Under Sections 13 and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934" — together with its amendment variant Form 15-15D/A. One record corresponds to a single EDGAR accession: one certification or notice filed by a single issuer on a single filing date, packaged as an accession-level sub-folder that carries a structured metadata.json summary alongside the primary Form 15 HTML document. The filings themselves are short, declarative instruments signed by issuer officers to terminate Section 12(g) registration (Rule 12g-4), suspend the Section 15(d) reporting duty (Rule 12h-3), or notice suspension by operation of rule (Rule 15d-6, Rule 15d-22(b) for asset-backed issuers). The dataset begins with the phased EDGAR mandate in January 1994 and continues to the present, giving a long-horizon view of when domestic operating companies, asset-backed trusts, bank holding companies, SPACs, and other Exchange Act registrants exit periodic reporting. It is distributed as monthly ZIP containers; each container holds one sub-folder per accession, and each sub-folder holds metadata.json plus the original Form 15 HTML.

Dataset APIs

Dataset Files

What This Dataset Contains

The dataset is built from Form 15 submissions that EDGAR classifies as form type 15-15D (original certification or notice) or 15-15D/A (amendment). It covers the complete population of such filings on EDGAR from January 1994 forward; pre-1994 paper Form 15 filings submitted under the same Rule 12g-4, 12h-3, and 15d-6 framework are not included because they predate the EDGAR electronic-filing mandate. The covered form types are therefore exactly 15-15D and 15-15D/A, and no other Form 15 label (15-12G, 15-12B, 15F) is packaged in this dataset.

Form 15-15D is a declarative instrument rather than a periodic or financial report. The issuer identifies the class or classes of securities being deregistered or for which the reporting duty is being suspended, cites the statutory or rule basis on a checkbox table, and certifies the approximate number of holders of record supporting that basis. There are no financial statements, no MD&A, no exhibits in the 10-K sense, and no structured financial facts embedded in the document. The primary artifact on disk is the Form 15 HTML document wrapped in an EDGAR SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope; supporting images, ancillary PDFs, and the complete submission text wrapper are not packed inside the record folder (the submission text wrapper is referenced by URL in the metadata and retrievable from EDGAR when needed).

The dataset is delivered as monthly ZIP containers keyed by filing year and year-month (for example 2025/2025-09.zip). Included file types within the archive are JSON (the per-accession metadata.json), HTML (the Form 15 body for modern filings), TXT (the fixed-width plain-text body for the 1994–2001 ASCII era, still wrapped in the same SGML envelope), and PDF (where the underlying EDGAR submission packaged one). Every record carries the full Form 15 HTML as filed, with no truncation or re-flow.

Content Structure of a Single Record

What one record represents

One record in the Form 15-15D Files dataset is a single EDGAR accession: one Form 15-15D certification/notice, or one Form 15-15D/A amendment, submitted by a single issuer on a single filing date. Each record is materialised on disk as an accession-level sub-folder inside a monthly ZIP container. The sub-folder is named with the 18-digit SEC accession number with hyphens removed (for example 000121390025093410), and contains a metadata.json summary object plus the primary Form 15 HTML document from the original EDGAR submission.

A record therefore combines two layers that together describe the filing end-to-end:

1. A structured metadata layer (metadata.json) describing the accession, the filer entity, timestamps, and the EDGAR document manifest.
2. A filing-content layer — the filled-in Form 15 HTML document, wrapped in the EDGAR SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope — carrying the substantive certification content: the class(es) of securities covered, the rule(s) relied upon, and the approximate number of holders of record.

Container format and directory layout

The root of each monthly ZIP is a single folder named after the year-month; inside that folder, every accession has its own sub-folder named with the hyphen-stripped 18-digit accession number. Every accession folder contains exactly two files: metadata.json and the single Form 15 HTML document that is the primary submission. No other attachments are packaged inside the record folder.

HTML filenames are preparer-specific tokens and are not canonicalised by EDGAR. Recurring suffix patterns include _1515d.htm, _15d.htm, and _1515da.htm for amendments, prefixed by a preparer-assigned code (examples: tm2525711d1_1515d.htm, d38622d1515d.htm, ea0258107-01_15d.htm, wedg_1515da.htm). Because the filename carries no stable semantics, the reliable pointer to the primary document is documentFormatFiles[0].documentUrl (equivalently linkToFilingDetails) in metadata.json, not the on-disk filename.

What the underlying filing is

Form 15 — filed as "Form 15-15D" when used to certify termination of Section 12(g) registration or to notice suspension of the Section 13/15(d) reporting duty — is a short, single-purpose certification form prescribed by the SEC. Its full legal title, reproduced at the top of the document body, is "CERTIFICATION AND NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF REGISTRATION UNDER SECTION 12(g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 OR SUSPENSION OF DUTY TO FILE REPORTS UNDER SECTIONS 13 AND 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934." It is filed pursuant to Rules 12g-4, 12h-3, and 15d-6 under the Exchange Act. Form 15-15D/A is an amendment to a previously filed Form 15-15D and reuses the identical template with an added explanatory note.

metadata.json schema

metadata.json is a single JSON object, one per accession folder, with the following keys:

• formType — "15-15D" for an original certification/notice, "15-15D/A" for an amendment.
• accessionNo — the full hyphenated EDGAR accession number (for example "0001213900-25-093410"). The folder name is the same string with hyphens removed.
• effectivenessDate — the certification or notice effective date in ISO YYYY-MM-DD form.
• filedAt — the full ISO 8601 filing timestamp with timezone offset (for example "2025-09-30T07:59:10-04:00").
• description — the EDGAR human-readable description (for example "Form 15-15D - Suspension of duty to report [Section 13 and 15(d)]").
• linkToFilingDetails — absolute sec.gov URL to the primary Form 15 HTML document.
• linkToTxt — URL to the complete submission text wrapper (the SGML .txt file containing every sub-document).
• linkToHtml — URL to the EDGAR -index.htm landing page for the accession.
• linkToXbrl — empty for Form 15 submissions.
• documentFormatFiles — an array of document descriptors drawn from the EDGAR submission manifest. Each descriptor carries sequence (SGML document sequence, "1" for the primary form and a single space " " for the complete submission text wrapper), size (raw byte count as a string), documentUrl (absolute sec.gov URL), description (free text such as "15-15D", "FORM 15-15D/A FILING", or "Complete submission text file"), and type (the form/document type: "15-15D", "15-15D/A", or " " for the text wrapper).
• entities — an array of entity records. For Form 15-15D the array contains only the filer itself. Each entity carries companyName (registrant name with a role suffix such as "(Filer)"), cik (without leading zeros), type (duplicates formType), act (Exchange Act reference — "34"), fileNo (SEC file number, either a 000- Exchange Act number for operating companies or a 333- Securities Act shelf number for asset-backed trusts, e.g. "333-249515-03"), filmNo (EDGAR film number), sic (SIC code concatenated with the industry text label, for example "6189 Asset-Backed Securities" or "8071 Services-Medical Laboratories"), fiscalYearEnd (MMDD string), and — where disclosed — irsNo and stateOfIncorporation.
• seriesAndClassesContractsInformation — an array, empty for Form 15-15D records.
• dataFiles — an array, empty for Form 15-15D records.
• id — a 32-character hex hash uniquely identifying the metadata record.

The Form 15-15D document body

The primary HTML is wrapped in the EDGAR SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope, giving reliable <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, <DESCRIPTION>, and <TEXT> anchors around the HTML payload:

          1
          <DOCUMENT>
        

          2
          <TYPE>15-15D
        

          3
          <SEQUENCE>1
        

          4
          <FILENAME>ea0258107-01_15d.htm
        

          5
          <DESCRIPTION>15-15D
        

          6
          <TEXT>
        

          7
          <HTML>
        

          8
            ... (the Form 15 body) ...
        

          9
          </HTML>
        

          10
          </TEXT>
        

          11
          </DOCUMENT>
        

The HTML body is a one- to two-page instrument whose structural elements appear in the following canonical order:

1. Commission masthead — UNITED STATES / SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION / Washington, D.C. 20549, followed by the form identifier FORM 15 (or FORM 15/A for an amendment).

2. Certification title block — the full legal title of the certification/notice, identifying both the Section 12(g) termination and the Sections 13/15(d) suspension possibilities as alternative purposes of the same form.

3. Commission File Number — the SEC file number assigned to the registrant or to the specific shelf takedown (for example 333-249515-03 for an ABS trust, or a 000- series number for an operating company).

4. Registrant identification block — the exact legal name of the registrant, principal executive office address, and telephone number. For amendments, the registrant's current name is given; any prior names are recited in the explanatory note when relevant.

5. Titles of each class of securities covered by the form — one or more class lines identifying the securities being deregistered or for which the reporting duty is being suspended. Operating companies typically carry a single common-stock line; asset-backed trusts frequently carry a structured list of note classes (for example CLASS A-1 through CLASS B Fixed Rate Automobile Receivables Backed Notes).

6. Titles of all other classes of securities for which a duty to file reports remains — most filings state None here, consistent with Form 15 being used to close out the registrant's reporting footprint in full.

7. Rule-reliance checkbox table — the substantive selection of which Exchange Act rule authorises the filing. The full set of boxes on the current form is:

   • Rule 12g-4(a)(1) — termination of Section 12(g) registration where the class is held of record by fewer than 300 persons (1,200 for banks, bank holding companies, and savings-and-loan holding companies).
   • Rule 12g-4(a)(2) — termination where the class is held of record by fewer than 500 persons and the issuer's total assets did not exceed the specified threshold on the last day of each of the most recent three fiscal years.
   • Rule 12h-3(b)(1)(i) — suspension of Section 15(d) reporting where the class is held of record by fewer than 300 persons.
   • Rule 12h-3(b)(1)(ii) — suspension where the class is held of record by fewer than 500 persons and total assets did not exceed the specified threshold on the last day of each of the most recent three fiscal years.
   • Rule 12h-3(b)(2)(i) and Rule 12h-3(b)(2)(ii) — further suspension bases tied to the same holder-count and asset-size framework applied to successor issuers and certain other situations.
   • Rule 12h-3(b)(3) — additional suspension circumstance applicable to specified classes.
   • Rule 12h-3(c) — suspension where the class became subject to Section 15(d) only by virtue of a Securities Act registration statement, so that the reporting obligation can be suspended for the fiscal year.
   • Rule 15d-6 — notice of suspension of the Section 15(d) reporting duty.
   • Rule 15d-22(b) — termination of reporting for asset-backed issuers under Regulation AB, used extensively by ABS trusts that have discharged their notes or otherwise satisfied the Regulation AB suspension conditions.

   Checked boxes are rendered either as Unicode ballot marks (☒) or as Wingdings codepoint glyphs (þ inside a Wingdings-styled span), depending on the document preparer. Machine extraction must normalise both conventions.

8. Approximate number of holders of record — a single integer reported as of the certification or notice date, given per class or in aggregate depending on preparer convention. Asset-backed trusts characteristically report 0 because outstanding notes are held through a depository in street name after payoff; operating companies report a low two- or three-digit figure consistent with the sub-300 or sub-500 threshold supporting the elected rule.

9. Signature block — the filing date, the exact name of the registrant, an /s/ electronic signature line, the printed name of the signing officer, and that officer's title.

10. Explanatory note (amendments only) — a 15-15D/A record adds a narrative block explaining the reason for the amendment. Observed uses include reciting the registrant's legal name history, restating the rule election, correcting the class title, and correcting the holder count. The rest of the template is reproduced unchanged.

Included content

Each record bundles the primary Form 15-15D HTML document (with its EDGAR SGML document envelope) and the complete metadata.json summary. The metadata exposes every EDGAR-header field needed to identify the accession and the filer, the canonical links to EDGAR-hosted artifacts (primary HTML, submission text wrapper, and -index.htm landing page), and the full document manifest as declared to EDGAR.

Excluded or separate content

Image files present in the original EDGAR submission (signature stamps, logos) are excluded by design. The complete submission .txt wrapper is not packaged inside the record folder; it is referenced by linkToTxt in the metadata and can be retrieved from EDGAR when required. Ancillary PDFs, where they exist in the underlying submission, are likewise not packed into the record folder. The dataFiles and seriesAndClassesContractsInformation arrays are empty for every Form 15-15D record — those slots exist for filings that carry structured exhibits or registered-investment-company series/class information, neither of which applies to Form 15.

Changes in required content and structure over time

The dataset spans January 1994 to the present, and the Form 15 template has been revised several times during that window. The content-relevant changes are:

• Addition of Regulation AB asset-backed issuer suspension (Rule 15d-22(b)). With the SEC's adoption of Regulation AB in 2004–2005, Rule 15d-22(b) became the governing suspension mechanic for ABS issuers that satisfy the distribution-report conditions of Regulation AB. The Rule 15d-22(b) checkbox entered the form for ABS trust filings from that era onward, and ABS trusts account for a large share of records in later years. Pre-2005 ABS-era filings relied on other bases (typically Rule 15d-6).
• Adjustments to holder-of-record thresholds. The JOBS Act of 2012 and subsequent SEC rulemaking raised the Section 12(g) registration-and-termination thresholds that backstop Rule 12g-4 and Rule 12h-3, including extension of the 1,200-holder threshold to savings-and-loan holding companies and the introduction of the 2,000-record-holder / 500-non-accredited Section 12(g) registration trigger. The Form 15 checkbox labels are expressed as rule citations rather than as numeric thresholds, but interpretation of the holder-count disclosure must be anchored to the rule regime in effect on the filing date.
• Reorganisation of Rule 12h-3 sub-boxes. The checkbox layout has grown over time to distinguish Rule 12h-3(b)(1)(i)/(ii), Rule 12h-3(b)(2)(i)/(ii), and Rule 12h-3(b)(3) as separate election lines. Older filings carry fewer sub-options; amendments in later years sometimes switch among these sub-citations to correct the original election.
• Form-title language. The full "Certification and Notice of Termination of Registration … or Suspension of Duty to File Reports …" title is stable across the range, but typography and heading hierarchy vary from filing to filing because the form is authored by individual preparers rather than generated from a canonical SEC template.
• Standardisation of the Explanatory Note on amendments. The amendment form has no prescribed structural section for explanation, but market practice has converged on an "Explanatory Note" block immediately above the signature block, describing the substantive edit (name-change history, corrected rule election, corrected holder count, corrected class title, and similar).

Changes in data format over time

Form 15 submissions evolved through the standard EDGAR presentation eras. Filings in the 1994–2001 window are ASCII/plain-text Form 15 submissions inside an SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope with a <TYPE>15-15D header, with the body rendered as fixed-width plain text. Beginning in the late 1990s and becoming dominant through the 2000s, filers migrated to HTML documents inside the same SGML envelope; this is the format of the overwhelming majority of records in the dataset and the exclusive format of recent filings. Checkbox glyphs in HTML-era filings are encoded either as Unicode ballot-box-with-check characters or as Wingdings codepoints styled with a Wingdings font-face, and downstream tooling should normalise both. The SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope is uniform across eras and provides the reliable anchors for machine extraction.

Interpretation notes

• Amendments do not supersede originals on disk. A Form 15-15D/A record is stored as its own accession folder under its own filing month; the original 15-15D remains in its own folder under its own earlier filing month. Linking an amendment back to the original requires matching on CIK, file number, and class title — the metadata does not embed a cross-reference field.
• Preparer variation dominates surface formatting. HTML filenames, CSS styling, and checkbox glyphs are preparer-specific. Rely on documentFormatFiles[0].documentUrl as the stable pointer to the primary HTML document rather than the on-disk filename.
• Holder-of-record semantics are class-scoped. Where multiple classes are listed, the holder count is typically given per class, or aggregated where that is unambiguous. ABS trust filings characteristically report 0 because outstanding notes are held via DTC nominee after payoff; operating-company filings report low counts calibrated to the sub-300 or sub-500 threshold supporting the elected rule.
• File-number format signals filer type. A 000- file number on a Form 15-15D typically reflects an Exchange Act registrant (operating company); a 333- file number with a numeric suffix typically reflects an asset-backed-securities takedown off a shelf, and is paired with Rule 15d-22(b) reliance.
• act is always "34". The filing is an Exchange Act instrument even when the file number derives from a Securities Act (333-) registration statement, because the reporting duty being suspended is Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act.
• Rule-election extraction requires reading the HTML, not the metadata. The metadata does not expose which rule box was checked; that information lives only inside the Form 15-15D HTML body and must be parsed from the checkbox rendering (Unicode ballot mark or Wingdings glyph) against the rule labels above.

Who Files Form 15-15D, and When

Who files or discloses the record

Each record in the Form 15-15D Files Dataset is filed by the issuer of the affected class of securities (or, in succession scenarios, its successor). Form 15 is signed by an authorized officer of the issuer and submitted to EDGAR under the issuer's own CIK. It is not filed by shareholders, underwriters, transfer agents, exchanges, or the acquiring parent in a merger — the acquired issuer remains the legal filer for its own class.

Typical filer populations include:

• Domestic operating companies whose Section 12(g)-registered equity has fallen below the applicable holder-of-record threshold, or whose Section 15(d) obligation has become eligible for suspension.
• Going-private issuers (Rule 13e-3 transactions, short-form mergers, cash-out mergers, reverse-split cashouts, tender offers) that file immediately after close.
• Acquired issuers whose public float has been cashed out or exchanged, leaving few or no outside holders.
• Asset-backed issuers (issuing trusts, depositors, SPVs) suspending Section 15(d) reporting under Rule 15d-22 after distributions end.
• Bank holding companies and savings and loan holding companies using the elevated 1,200-holder thresholds under Rules 12g-4 and 12h-3.
• SPACs, shell companies, and trust/pass-through issuers winding down after liquidation, redemption, or termination.
• Debt-only issuers whose registered debt has matured, been redeemed, or been defeased.
• Foreign private issuers (FPIs) using Rule 12g-4 or Rule 12h-3 rather than Rule 12h-6 (most FPIs seeking full Exchange Act exit instead file Form 15F).

Registered investment companies do not use Form 15-15D; they deregister on Form N-8F under the 1940 Act.

When the record is created — triggers and statutory hooks

Form 15-15D is event-driven, not periodic. The filer checks one or more rule boxes to identify the statutory basis invoked:

• Rule 12g-4 (under Section 12(g)(4)): certification of termination of Section 12(g) registration. Eligibility requires the class to be held of record by:
  • fewer than 300 persons, or fewer than 1,200 persons for a bank, bank holding company, or savings and loan holding company; or
  • fewer than 500 persons if total assets have not exceeded the specified threshold on the last day of each of the most recent three fiscal years.
• Rule 12h-3 (under Section 15(d)): suspension of the Section 15(d) periodic reporting duty. Requires the same 300 / 1,200-holder condition, measured as of the first day of the fiscal year for which suspension is sought, plus having filed all Exchange Act reports for the most recent three fiscal years and the portion of the current year. Rule 12h-3 is unavailable for any fiscal year in which a Securities Act registration statement was updated or became effective — an IPO or shelf takedown blocks same-year use.
• Rule 15d-6: the general notice mechanism when a Section 15(d) duty becomes suspended by operation of law, used heavily by ABS issuers relying on Rule 15d-22 after the prior fiscal year's distribution activity.

Section 12(g) vs. Section 13 vs. Section 15(d)

• Section 12(g) triggers registration for equity classes above the holder threshold; its exit is via Rule 12g-4.
• Section 13 imposes periodic reporting on issuers whose securities are registered under Section 12; that duty falls away when Section 12 registration terminates.
• Section 15(d) imposes periodic reporting on issuers that have an effective Securities Act registration statement, independent of Section 12; its suspension is via Rule 12h-3 (holder-based) or Rule 15d-6 (notice of suspension by operation of rule).

An issuer with both a Section 12(g) registration and a legacy Section 15(d) obligation typically invokes Rule 12g-4 and Rule 12h-3 on the same Form 15.

Holders-of-record counting (Rule 12g5-1)

Eligibility turns on holders of record, not beneficial owners. Rule 12g5-1 counts each record holder on the issuer's stock ledger or transfer records as one holder — Cede & Co. (DTC), a broker, a bank, or any other nominee counts as a single holder regardless of how many beneficial owners it represents. A class held predominantly in street name can therefore cross below 300 holders of record while still having many beneficial shareholders.

JOBS Act (2012) amendments raised the Section 12(g) registration trigger to 2,000 holders (or 500 non-accredited holders), introduced the 1,200-holder standard for banks and bank holding companies in Rules 12g-4 and 12h-3, and added Rule 12g5-1(a)(7) excluding securities received under exempt employee-compensation plans from the count. The FAST Act (2015) extended the 1,200-holder treatment to savings and loan holding companies. Non-bank issuers may not invoke the 1,200-holder standard even if their business is financial in nature.

Effectiveness timing — 90-day termination vs. immediate suspension

The rule invoked governs when the filing takes effect:

• Rule 12g-4 (termination). Filing Form 15 immediately suspends the issuer's Section 13 periodic and current reporting duties for the class. Registration itself terminates 90 days after filing (or a shorter period set by the Commission), unless the SEC denies the certification within that window — in which case reporting obligations resume.
• Rule 12h-3 (suspension). Suspension is effective immediately upon filing, but eligibility is fixed as of the first day of the fiscal year. Many calendar-year issuers therefore file in early January to stop further 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K filings for the year.
• Rule 15d-6 / ABS suspensions. The notice is filed after the suspension conditions are met; the suspension applies to the fiscal year in which the notice is filed.

Termination vs. suspension

These are legally different outcomes and the distinction drives whether the obligation can return:

• Termination under Rule 12g-4 ends Section 12(g) registration of the class; the registration is gone and the associated Section 13 duty falls with it.
• Suspension under Rule 12h-3 only pauses the Section 15(d) duty. The underlying obligation persists and springs back in any later fiscal year in which the holder count exceeds the threshold on the first day of that year, requiring the issuer to resume Section 15(d) reporting without any new triggering event.

Form 15-15D/A amendments

Form 15-15D/A amends a previously filed Form 15-15D by the same issuer. Typical reasons:

• correcting the class identified, the holder-of-record count, or the rule basis checked;
• adding or removing a class;
• responding to staff eligibility questions with a clarified certification;
• correcting or retracting a filing made in error.

Amendments reference the original accession and do not restart the Rule 12g-4 90-day clock unless the substance of the certification materially changes.

Important distinctions

• Form 15 vs. Form 15F. FPIs meeting the Rule 12h-6 conditions (including the 5% U.S. ADTV test) deregister on Form 15F. Form 15-15D remains available to FPIs relying on Rule 12g-4 or Rule 12h-3 instead.
• Form 15 vs. Form N-8F. Exchange Act exit uses Form 15-15D; Investment Company Act of 1940 deregistration uses Form N-8F.
• Form 15 vs. Form 25. Section 12(b) (exchange-listed) registration is not terminated on Form 15. The issuer files Form 25 under Rule 12d2-2 to delist and terminate Section 12(b) registration, then separately files Form 15-15D if Section 12(g) registration or Section 15(d) reporting also remains.
• Filer identity in M&A. The acquired issuer files for its own class; the acquiring parent does not file Form 15-15D on the target's behalf absent a formal successor designation.
• EDGAR coverage. The dataset begins January 1994 with the phased EDGAR mandate; pre-1994 paper Form 15 filings under the same Rule 12g-4 / 12h-3 / 15d-6 framework are not included.

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form 15-15D belongs to a narrow family of SEC exit and deregistration filings. The closest neighbors are the other EDGAR variants of Form 15, the foreign private issuer counterpart (Form 15F), the exchange-delisting notification (Form 25), the investment-company deregistration application (Form N-8F), and the periodic reports (10-K, 10-Q) whose filing duty Form 15-15D ends or suspends. The comparisons below focus on rule basis, filer population, legal effect, and content.

Form 15 (base form) and its EDGAR variants

Form 15 is a single paper form with one instruction set, but EDGAR assigns distinct form type labels based on the statutory box the filer checks. The "15-15D" label is applied when the submission is made by an issuer whose reporting obligation arises under Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act, typically because the issuer previously registered securities under the Securities Act of 1933 (e.g., on Form S-1 or S-3) and now qualifies to suspend or terminate that reporting duty under Rule 12h-3 or Rule 15d-6. The underlying certification is identical across Form 15 variants; what differs is the rule cited, the statutory section affected, and the EDGAR classification that results.

Form 15-12G

Form 15-12G is filed under Rule 12g-4 to certify termination of registration of a class of securities registered under Section 12(g). It applies to issuers whose registration was triggered by crossing Section 12(g) asset and holder thresholds, not by a Securities Act registration. Field structure overlaps heavily with Form 15-15D (issuer identity, class of securities, holders of record, rule basis), but the legal effect differs: 15-12G terminates Section 12(g) registration, while 15-15D most commonly suspends Section 15(d) reporting. Issuers with both a 12(g) registration and a 15(d) obligation sometimes file separate Form 15 submissions under each label.

Form 15-12B

Form 15-12B certifies termination of registration of a class of securities registered under Section 12(b), i.e., securities listed on a national securities exchange. It generally follows a Form 25 delisting and completes the deregistration step that Form 25 does not automatically effect. The form's mechanics mirror 15-15D, but the distinguishing features are the Section 12(b) basis, the exchange-listed class of securities, and the prior listing status of the issuer.

Form 15F

Form 15F is the foreign private issuer counterpart, filed under Rule 12h-6 to terminate Exchange Act registration and reporting for FPIs that meet thresholds such as limited U.S. trading volume relative to worldwide volume or a low count of U.S. resident holders. Unlike the short Form 15 certification, Form 15F is a substantive filing with representations about trading-volume tests, prior reporting history, and foreign listing status. The filer population (FPIs previously reporting on 20-F or 40-F) and the rule regime (12h-6) are both distinct from those of Form 15-15D.

Form 25

Form 25 is a notification of removal from listing and/or registration on a national securities exchange, filed under Section 12(b) and Rule 12d2-2. It may be filed by the exchange or, for voluntary delistings, by the issuer. Form 25 effects the delisting itself but does not terminate residual Exchange Act reporting obligations that may persist under Section 12(g) or Section 15(d). Issuers commonly file Form 25 first (to delist) and then Form 15-12B or 15-15D shortly after (to end or suspend the remaining reporting duty). The datasets are complementary: Form 25 records the exchange-removal event, Form 15-15D records the end of the Section 15(d) reporting obligation.

Form N-8F

Form N-8F is the deregistration application for registered investment companies under Section 8(f) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, typically filed after a fund's liquidation, merger, or abandonment of fund operations. It is a narrative application requiring an SEC order before deregistration takes effect. Form 15-15D, by contrast, is a self-executing certification filed by operating-company issuers under the Exchange Act: suspension under Rule 15d-6 is effective on filing, and termination under Rule 12h-3 becomes effective 90 days after filing absent SEC objection. The filer populations (operating companies vs. registered funds) and statutory regimes (1934 Act vs. 1940 Act) are disjoint.

Form 10-K and Form 10-Q

Form 10-K and Form 10-Q are the annual and quarterly reports whose filing duty Form 15-15D is designed to end or suspend. The relationship is inverse: 10-K and 10-Q represent ongoing Section 13 or 15(d) disclosure obligations; Form 15-15D marks the endpoint of that flow for a given issuer-class. A Form 15-15D typically signals that subsequent 10-K and 10-Q filings from the same CIK will cease (and may resume only if the suspension lapses). Content and cadence differ entirely: 10-K/10-Q are periodic, multi-hundred-page narrative and financial disclosures; Form 15-15D is a short certification with a handful of structured fields.

Adjacent amendment and delisting records

• Form 15-15D/A, Form 15-12G/A, and Form 15-12B/A are the amendment variants of each Form 15 label. Only 15-15D and 15-15D/A are in this dataset; 12G and 12B amendments live in their own datasets.
• Form 25-NSE is the exchange-filed version of the Form 25 delisting notice, distinct from the issuer-filed Form 25.
• Schedule 13E-3 (going-private transactions) and Schedule TO-I (issuer tender offers) often precede a Form 15 filing but document the transaction that reduced holder counts, not the deregistration itself.
• Form NT 10-K and Form NT 10-Q notify the SEC of a late but still-pending periodic filing, the opposite of Form 15-15D's termination or suspension.

What makes Form 15-15D distinct

Within the deregistration family, Form 15-15D is narrowly the dataset of Section 15(d) suspensions and related Rule 12h-3 certifications for domestic operating-company issuers whose reporting obligation traces back to a Securities Act registration. It is neither the 12(g) termination set (15-12G), nor the 12(b) exchange-linked termination set (15-12B), nor the foreign-issuer set (15F), nor the fund-deregistration set (N-8F), nor the exchange-delisting set (Form 25). Its records are short, structured, and event-driven, typically signaling the terminal event in an issuer's Exchange Act reporting life cycle. Substitution across these datasets is limited: each captures a different rule, a different filer population, and a different legal effect, and a complete view of SEC reporting exits generally requires combining 15-15D with the neighboring 15-12G, 15-12B, 15F, 25, and N-8F datasets rather than treating any one of them as representative.

Who Uses This Dataset

Professional users rely on the dataset for authoritative evidence of an issuer's exit from periodic reporting, the statutory basis for that exit, and the holder-of-record counts that justified it.

Securities lawyers and disclosure counsel

Deregistration counsel use prior filings as a precedent corpus when drafting a client's Form 15. They read the rule citation (12g-4(a)(1), 12g-4(a)(2), 12h-3, or 15d-6), the class-of-securities description, and the certified holder count to confirm drafting conventions and benchmark amendment practice on 15-15D/A. Workflow: precedent research, checklist build-out for deregistration memoranda, and pre-submission QC against the client's draft.

Issuer compliance and SEC reporting teams

In-house compliance leads preparing to exit reporting benchmark class-by-class holder counts, rule basis, and filing timing relative to the last 10-K or 10-Q, particularly for multi-class issuers and Rule 12h-3 suspensions that must be re-tested each fiscal year. Workflow: internal controls that evidence threshold compliance, ADR program termination, delisting coordination, and close-out of Section 16 obligations.

M&A and going-private bankers

Bankers on squeeze-outs, short-form mergers, and take-private LBOs treat the Form 15 as the definitive end-of-reporting marker for a target. They key on filing date, CIK, the deregistered class, and whether the basis is termination (12g-4) or suspension (15d-6, 12h-3). Workflow: league-table reconciliation, post-closing milestone tracking, and historical going-private precedent lists for fairness-opinion and pitch work.

Structured finance and ABS operations

Securitization trusts are heavy filers once registered note classes pay down. ABS counsel and operations teams use class identification (often CUSIP-linked note series) and holder counts at suspension to confirm trust wind-down, verify cessation of Form 10-D and ABS-EE reporting, and retire specific note classes. Workflow: reconcile termination dates with trustee remittance reports and close indenture-level compliance files.

Structured credit analysts

Analysts covering ABS, RMBS, and CMBS combine the 15-15D filing date and class identification with factor and remittance data to confirm deal retirement, validate amortization models, and drop terminated trusts from surveillance queues.

Event-driven and M&A research desks

Event-driven analysts use Form 15 as closure confirmation for mergers, tender offers, and take-privates. They link CIK and effective date to deal-tracking tables to close positions, stop coverage, and record terminal entries. The basis field separates true deregistrations from potentially reversible suspensions.

Quant researchers and financial data engineers

Quant teams ingest 15-15D and 15-15D/A filings to maintain the investable universe. Key fields are accession number, CIK, filing date, form type (original vs. amendment), and affected classes. Workflow: survivorship-bias correction in backtests, universe-maintenance jobs for factor models, and data-quality alerts when a dead CIK resumes filing.

External and internal auditors

Auditors of issuers exiting reporting reconcile the cited rule basis against eligibility, the certified holder counts against transfer-agent records, and the filing timing against the last audited period. Workflow: subsequent-events review, going-concern analysis, and confirmation that disclosure obligations for the audit period were properly extinguished.

Academic and economic researchers

Accounting, finance, and law researchers study the time series of terminations, the mix of 12g-4 terminations versus 12h-3 suspensions, and cohort effects from rule changes such as the JOBS Act holder thresholds. CIK enables linkage to accounting panels; basis and class fields support longitudinal work on the cost of being public and ABS deregulation dynamics.

RegTech and reference-data vendors

Vendors propagate EDGAR lifecycle state to reference-data, disclosure-management, and compliance-monitoring products. They parse the cover page (name, CIK, address), rule basis, and classes, and run delta detection between an original 15-15D and any 15-15D/A, since amendments reset the effective certification state downstream.

Investigative and data journalists

Reporters use the dataset to surface companies that have gone dark, often after take-privates, reverse mergers, enforcement actions, or distress. Clusters by sponsor, filing date, issuer name, and rule basis support stories on retail-holder liquidity loss and end-of-life patterns for controversial issuers.

Specific Use Cases

The following workflows show how practitioners use Form 15-15D records in concrete, field-level terms.

Deregistration precedent research for Form 15 drafting

Securities lawyers preparing a client's Form 15 pull prior filings filtered by the rule-election checkbox (Rule 12h-3(b)(1)(i), Rule 12h-3(c), Rule 15d-6, etc.) and by SIC code from entities[0].sic. They read the class-of-securities block, the holder-of-record figure, and any 15-15D/A explanatory notes to benchmark drafting conventions, signature-block formatting, and the precise rule sub-citation used by similar issuers. The output is a precedent binder attached to the deregistration memo and a redlined draft aligned to prevailing market practice.

ABS trust wind-down and Regulation AB surveillance

Structured-credit operations teams monitor formType = "15-15D" accessions where entities[0].sic starts with "6189" and the rule election in the HTML body is Rule 15d-22(b). They join fileNo (typically a 333-...-NN shelf takedown) and the class titles from the form body (e.g., CLASS A-1 through CLASS B notes) to trustee remittance reports to confirm final paydown, retire the deal from surveillance queues, stop ABS-EE and Form 10-D ingestion, and close the indenture compliance file.

Survivorship-bias correction of historical equity universes

Quant data engineers ingest every metadata.json across monthly ZIPs and build a CIK-level terminal-event table keyed on accessionNo, filedAt, effectivenessDate, and the parsed rule basis. They flag each CIK's last reporting day in the backtest universe, distinguish terminations (Rule 12g-4) from potentially reversible suspensions (Rule 12h-3, Rule 15d-6), and trigger data-quality alerts if a CIK marked terminated resumes filing. The output feeds point-in-time universe snapshots used by factor and event-study pipelines.

M&A exit confirmation and going-private league tables

Event-driven and M&A research desks match target CIKs from their deal-tracking tables against incoming 15-15D accessions. They use filedAt, effectivenessDate, the class titles, and the rule basis to confirm the post-closing deregistration milestone, close open position entries, and stamp the deal as completed. Filings citing Rule 12g-4(a)(1) on a single common-stock class following a tender offer or short-form merger feed the going-private precedent list used for pitch decks and fairness-opinion comparables.

Amendment-driven state reconciliation for reference-data vendors

RegTech vendors detect new formType = "15-15D/A" records and resolve them back to the original 15-15D by matching entities[0].cik, fileNo, and class title (the dataset carries no explicit cross-reference). They parse the explanatory note to classify the amendment reason (name-change recital, corrected rule election, corrected holder count, corrected class title) and update downstream reporting-status, issuer-name-history, and rule-basis fields so that disclosure-management and compliance-monitoring products reflect the amended certification rather than the superseded original.

JOBS Act cohort analysis of deregistration behavior

Academic and policy researchers combine effectivenessDate, entities[0].sic, stateOfIncorporation, and the parsed rule checkbox across the 1994-to-present range to study how the 2012 JOBS Act threshold changes shifted the mix of Rule 12g-4(a)(1) terminations versus Rule 12h-3 suspensions, and how the 2005 introduction of Rule 15d-22(b) reshaped ABS-trust exit volume. CIK links the cohort to Compustat or CRSP panels for downstream work on the cost of being public and small-issuer exit dynamics.

Dataset Access

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1515d-files.json

This endpoint returns the dataset metadata along with the full list of container files. The metadata includes the dataset name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date (1994-01-01), total record count, total size in bytes, covered form types (15-15D, 15-15D/A), container format (ZIP), and included file types (TXT, JSON, HTML, PDF). Each container entry lists its key, byte size, record count, last updated timestamp, and a direct download URL. Poll this endpoint to detect which containers changed in the latest refresh and download only those that have been updated. This endpoint does not require an API key.

Example response:

          1
          {
        

          2
            "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-691a-aeca-39453cb0d802",
        

          3
            "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1515d-files.zip",
        

          4
            "name": "Form 15-15D Files Dataset",
        

          5
            "updatedAt": "2026-04-24T02:55:58.689Z",
        

          6
            "earliestSampleDate": "1994-01-01",
        

          7
            "totalRecords": 16969,
        

          8
            "totalSize": 44159583,
        

          9
            "formTypes": ["15-15D", "15-15D/A"],
        

          10
            "containerFormat": "ZIP",
        

          11
            "fileTypes": ["TXT", "JSON", "HTML", "PDF"],
        

          12
            "containers": [
        

          13
              {
        

          14
                "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1515d-files/2026/2026-03.zip",
        

          15
                "key": "2026/2026-03.zip",
        

          16
                "size": 13818783,
        

          17
                "records": 154,
        

          18
                "updatedAt": "2026-03-21T02:51:19.000Z"
        

          19
              }
        

          20
            ]
        

          21
          }
        

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1515d-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads the complete dataset as a single ZIP archive containing every container file. Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your SEC API key. This endpoint requires an API key.

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-1515d-files/2026/2026-03.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads one individual container file, typically a per-year-month ZIP archive, using the key value from the dataset index. Use this method to fetch only recently updated containers rather than the full archive. This endpoint requires an API key.

Frequently Asked Questions

What forms does the Form 15-15D Files Dataset cover?

The dataset covers exactly two EDGAR form types: 15-15D, the original "Certification and Notice of Termination of Registration Under Section 12(g) … or Suspension of Duty to File Reports Under Sections 13 and 15(d)," and 15-15D/A, its amendment variant. Other Form 15 labels — 15-12G, 15-12B, and 15F — are not included; they live in separate datasets.

What does one record in the dataset represent?

One record is a single EDGAR accession: one Form 15-15D or Form 15-15D/A submission filed by a single issuer on a single filing date. On disk each record is an accession-level sub-folder inside a monthly ZIP, named with the 18-digit hyphen-stripped accession number, containing exactly two files — metadata.json and the primary Form 15 HTML document.

What is the difference between termination and suspension on a Form 15-15D?

Termination under Rule 12g-4 ends Section 12(g) registration of the class and takes effect 90 days after filing absent SEC objection, though the Section 13 reporting duty is suspended immediately on filing. Suspension under Rule 12h-3 only pauses the Section 15(d) duty, is effective immediately on filing, and springs back in any later fiscal year in which the holder count exceeds the threshold on the first day of that year, forcing reporting to resume without any new triggering event.

Who is required to file Form 15-15D?

The issuer of the affected class of securities is the filer; Form 15 is signed by an authorized officer and submitted under the issuer's own CIK. Typical filers include domestic operating companies crossing below the applicable holder-of-record threshold, going-private issuers after cash-out mergers or tender offers, asset-backed trusts suspending under Rule 15d-22 after distributions end, bank and savings-and-loan holding companies using the 1,200-holder threshold, SPACs and shell companies winding down, and debt-only issuers whose registered debt has matured or been defeased. Registered investment companies do not use Form 15-15D — they deregister on Form N-8F under the 1940 Act.

How is Form 15-15D different from Form 15-12G, Form 15-12B, and Form 15F?

All are EDGAR variants of the same underlying Form 15 template, distinguished by the statutory box checked. Form 15-15D is used when the reporting obligation arises under Section 15(d) (typically from a prior Securities Act registration) and is being suspended under Rule 12h-3 or Rule 15d-6. Form 15-12G terminates Section 12(g) registration under Rule 12g-4; Form 15-12B terminates Section 12(b) registration for exchange-listed classes and usually follows a Form 25 delisting; Form 15F is the foreign-private-issuer counterpart filed under Rule 12h-6 with substantive trading-volume and holder-count representations.

Why do asset-backed trusts show up heavily in this dataset, and why do their holder counts equal zero?

Since the SEC's adoption of Regulation AB in 2004–2005, ABS trusts that discharge their notes or otherwise meet the Regulation AB suspension conditions exit reporting on Form 15-15D by checking the Rule 15d-22(b) box; they account for a large share of records in later years. Their "approximate number of holders of record" is characteristically 0 because outstanding notes are held through a depository (DTC, via Cede & Co.) in street name after final paydown, so no holder remains on the issuer's registry under the Rule 12g5-1 counting convention.

How do I link a Form 15-15D/A amendment back to its original Form 15-15D?

The dataset does not embed a cross-reference field in metadata.json, and amendments are stored as their own accession folders under their own filing months rather than replacing the original. Linking requires matching on entities[0].cik, fileNo, and the class title between the 15-15D/A record and a prior 15-15D from the same issuer; the amendment's explanatory note typically describes the substantive edit (name-change recital, corrected rule election, corrected holder count, or corrected class title).

What time period does the dataset cover, and how is it refreshed?

The dataset's earliest sample date is 1994-01-01, aligned with the phased EDGAR electronic-filing mandate; pre-1994 paper Form 15 filings are not included. It is delivered as monthly ZIP containers keyed by filing year-month (for example 2025/2025-09.zip), and the dataset index JSON endpoint exposes a per-container updatedAt timestamp so consumers can poll for changes and download only containers that have been refreshed.