Form 40FR12B Files Dataset

The Form 40FR12B Files Dataset is a packaged, EDGAR-derived corpus of every Form 40FR12B initial registration statement and Form 40FR12B/A amendment filed by eligible Canadian issuers using the Multijurisdictional Disclosure System (MJDS) to register a class of securities under Section 12(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Each record corresponds to a single accession-numbered EDGAR submission and bundles a normalized metadata.json index with the primary registration document and every text-bearing EX-99.x exhibit attached to that submission. The filer is the Canadian issuer itself, acting as registrant, and a concurrent Form F-X is filed to appoint a U.S. agent for service of process. Coverage begins in February 2002, the start of mandatory EDGAR filing for foreign private issuers including Canadian MJDS filers, and runs forward to the present, providing a continuous record of MJDS-based U.S.-exchange-listing registrations. The dataset is distributed as monthly ZIP containers carrying SGML-wrapped HTML documents and JSON metadata.

Update Frequency
Daily
Updated at
2026-04-30
Earliest Sample Date
2002-02-01
Total Size
277.2 MB
Total Records
18,953
Container Format
ZIP
Content Types
HTML, TXT, JSON
Form Types
40FR12B, 40FR12B/A

Dataset APIs

Programmatically retrieve the full list of dataset archive files, download URLs and dataset metadata.

Dataset Index JSON API

Download the entire dataset as a single archive file.

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Download a single container file (e.g. monthly archive) from the dataset.

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Dataset Files

158 files · 277.2 MB
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2026-04.zip4.3 MB141 records
2026-03.zip4.6 MB168 records
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What This Dataset Contains

The dataset contains every Form 40FR12B and Form 40FR12B/A submission accepted by EDGAR from February 2002 forward. Form 40FR12B is the registration-of-securities counterpart to Form 40-F under the Multijurisdictional Disclosure System (MJDS) adopted by the SEC and Canadian securities administrators in 1991. It permits eligible Canadian issuers — those with at least 12 months of Canadian reporting history and a public float of at least US$75 million — to register a class of securities under Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act using a disclosure package largely prepared in accordance with Canadian securities law. The "12B" in the form name refers to Section 12(b), which governs registration in connection with listing on a U.S. national securities exchange (as distinct from Form 40FR12G, which addresses Section 12(g) over-the-counter registration).

Substantively, a Form 40FR12B submission consists of a short SEC cover/facing sheet that captures registrant identification, the class of securities being registered, and the boilerplate Section 12(b) registration language, followed by a body of incorporated Canadian disclosure documents attached as numbered EX-99.x exhibits. These exhibits typically reproduce the registrant's Annual Information Form (AIF), audited financial statements prepared under IFRS or, for older filings, Canadian GAAP, management's discussion and analysis (MD&A), a description of capital structure and the securities being registered, material change reports, officer and auditor certifications, and any other documents required by the Form 40-F instructions and by SEC exhibit rules. Form 40FR12B/A serves the same function but represents an amendment to a previously filed registration statement, and may be filed multiple times during the registration review cycle.

The dataset is distributed as monthly ZIP containers (e.g. 2025/2025-09.zip) holding HTML, TXT, and JSON files. Both initial registration filings (40FR12B) and amendments (40FR12B/A) are present, and each amendment is shipped as its own complete record rather than as a delta against the initial filing.

Content Structure of a Single Record

What one record represents

One record in the Form 40FR12B Files Dataset corresponds to a single EDGAR submission of either Form 40FR12B (an initial registration statement filed by an eligible Canadian issuer to register a class of securities under Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act of 1934 via the MJDS) or Form 40FR12B/A (an amendment to such a registration statement). The record unit is the entire accession-numbered submission, not an individual exhibit and not a single section.

Each record is materialized as a folder named after the SEC accession number with dashes stripped (an 18-digit numeric string, e.g. 000106299325015627). Folders are grouped into monthly ZIP containers keyed by filing month (e.g. 2025/2025-09.zip). When unpacked, each ZIP contains exactly one top-level directory named after the month (e.g. 2025-09/) holding one accession sub-folder per filing.

Inside each accession folder, the record bundles a normalized metadata.json index together with every text-bearing document from the original EDGAR submission — the primary registration document plus its EX-99.x exhibits — each carrying the original SGML <DOCUMENT> wrapper produced by EDGAR. There are no nested sub-directories, no separate financial-data file groupings, and no image binaries: GRAPHIC attachments (JPG, GIF, PNG) that were part of the original EDGAR submission are intentionally excluded from the ZIP payload, although their EDGAR manifest rows still appear inside metadata.json.

Layered structure

A single record is composed of three layered structures:

  1. Folder-level packaging keyed by accession number, containing exactly one metadata.json and one or more .htm files at a flat depth.
  2. The metadata.json index, which normalizes the EDGAR header (registrant identification, filing identifiers, dates) and the document-list manifest (per-attachment type, sequence, description, byte size, and canonical SEC URL).
  3. SGML-wrapped HTML documents that carry the actual disclosure content. Each .htm file retains the original EDGAR <DOCUMENT> envelope with <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, and <DESCRIPTION> pseudo-tags before the HTML payload.

The primary document is named with the form-stem convention — form40fr12b.htm for an initial filing or form40fr12ba.htm for an amendment — and always carries <SEQUENCE>1 in its SGML wrapper. Subsequent attachments use the EDGAR EX-99.x exhibit naming pattern, surfaced in the unpacked filenames as exhibit99-NN.htm (for example exhibit99-93.htm through exhibit99-99.htm). Exhibit numbering is not contiguous from 1: filers often follow the cumulative numbering already used in the Canadian continuous-disclosure record, so a single record can contain a sparse, high-numbered subset of EX-99.x exhibits. The number of exhibits varies considerably — some amendments include only a single EX-99 exhibit (such as a press release or material change report), while a comprehensive initial registration may carry several dozen EX-99.x exhibits encompassing the full Canadian continuous-disclosure record.

metadata.json

metadata.json is a single JSON object that mirrors the EDGAR header data and the per-document manifest. The principal fields are:

  • formType — either 40FR12B or 40FR12B/A.
  • accessionNo — the canonical dashed SEC accession number (e.g. 0001062993-25-015627); the parent folder name is the same string with dashes removed.
  • filedAt — an ISO-8601 timestamp with timezone offset capturing the official EDGAR acceptance time.
  • description — a human-readable form-type label (e.g. Form 40FR12B/A - Registration of a Class of Securities of certain Canadian issuers [Section 12(b)]: [Amend]).
  • linkToFilingDetails — URL to the primary form document on www.sec.gov.
  • linkToTxt — URL to the full SGML submission text file on EDGAR.
  • linkToHtml — URL to the EDGAR filing index page.
  • linkToXbrl — empty for this form, which is filed in HTML/SGML without inline or accompanying XBRL data.
  • id — an opaque 32-character hexadecimal identifier.
  • documentFormatFiles — an array with one entry per attachment in the EDGAR submission. Each entry carries sequence (1-based numeric index, with the trailing full-submission .txt row using a single space), type (EDGAR document-type code such as 40FR12B/A, EX-99.93, or GRAPHIC), description (free-text label), documentUrl (canonical www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/... URL), and size (byte size as a string). GRAPHIC rows remain in this manifest even though their binaries are excluded from the ZIP.
  • entities — an array of registrant/filer entity objects. Each carries companyName with a role suffix in parentheses (e.g. BTQ Technologies Corp. (Filer)), cik, tickers (often listing both Canadian and U.S. trading symbols, e.g. ["STKE", "CYFRF"]), fileNo, irsNo (frequently 000000000 for non-U.S. filers without an IRS EIN), sic (industry code with textual description), stateOfIncorporation using SEC location codes where Canadian provinces appear as A0-A9 (e.g. A1 = British Columbia, A6 = Ontario), fiscalYearEnd as four-digit MMDD, act (34 for the Exchange Act), type (mirrors the top-level formType), and filmNo.
  • seriesAndClassesContractsInformation — an empty array for this form, which lacks the series-and-class structure used by investment-company filings.
  • dataFiles — an empty array, since Form 40FR12B filings do not carry XBRL data files.

The primary 40FR12B / 40FR12B/A document

The primary form document opens with the SEC facing/cover page, structured as a registration cover sheet rather than a full narrative. It identifies the registrant by exact legal name; provides the translation of the name into English where applicable; states the province or country of incorporation or organization (using the SEC's A0-A9 Canadian province codes); supplies the IRS employer identification number where one exists; lists the principal executive office address and telephone number; identifies the agent for service of process in the United States; specifies the title and class of securities being registered under Section 12(b); names the U.S. exchange on which each class is to be listed (commonly the NYSE, NYSE American, or Nasdaq); and identifies any securities to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g). The cover page also records the issuer's Canadian reporting history, an indication of whether the filing is being made under General Instruction A, B, or C of Form 40-F, and the standard Section 12(b) registration boilerplate.

Following the cover page, the primary document carries either the substantive registration narrative (for older filings that embedded disclosure directly) or, more commonly, a short body that incorporates by reference the documents filed as EX-99.x exhibits, with explicit cross-references identifying each incorporated document by exhibit number, title, and date. Signatures of authorized officers and the date of execution close the primary document.

EX-99.x exhibits

The bulk of substantive disclosure typically resides in the EX-99.x exhibits. In MJDS filings these exhibits are predominantly Canadian continuous-disclosure documents reproduced in the form they were filed on SEDAR/SEDAR+, and commonly include:

  • the Annual Information Form (AIF) describing the registrant's business, properties, three-year history, risk factors, capital structure, dividends, market for securities, directors and officers, audit committee composition, and corporate governance;
  • audited annual financial statements with auditor's report, prepared under IFRS as issued by the IASB or, for older filings, Canadian GAAP, including statements of financial position, profit or loss, comprehensive income, changes in equity, and cash flows, together with the full notes;
  • the corresponding management's discussion and analysis (MD&A);
  • interim financial statements and interim MD&A where applicable;
  • a description of share capital and the securities being registered;
  • the management information circular for the most recent annual meeting;
  • material change reports filed during the relevant period;
  • press releases and news releases, often including the announcement of the Form 40-F or 40FR12B filing itself, monthly operational updates, and material development announcements;
  • officer certifications under Canadian National Instrument 52-109 covering annual and interim filings;
  • consents of auditors and other experts;
  • corporate governance and audit committee disclosures.

Each exhibit is delivered as a separate .htm file with its own SGML envelope. Exhibit HTML bodies typically include corporate branding, page-styling artifacts originally produced for the Canadian filing, forward-looking-information disclaimers, and image references (e.g. <img src="exhibit99-93x1x1.jpg">) whose binaries are not shipped inside the ZIP.

The SGML <DOCUMENT> wrapper

Every .htm file in an accession folder is enclosed in EDGAR's SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope. The wrapper begins with <DOCUMENT> and exposes a small set of header pseudo-tags — <TYPE> (the EDGAR document-type code such as 40FR12B/A or EX-99.93), <SEQUENCE> (the 1-based attachment index), <FILENAME> (the on-disk filename), and <DESCRIPTION> (free-text label) — followed by <TEXT> introducing the HTML payload, and is terminated by </TEXT> and </DOCUMENT>. The same per-attachment metadata is also surfaced in metadata.json under documentFormatFiles, so the dataset offers two parallel views of the document manifest: a structured JSON view and the original SGML headers preserved on each document.

Excluded or separate content

  • GRAPHIC attachments. JPG, GIF, and PNG image files referenced by exhibit HTML or by the cover page are excluded from the ZIP payload, although their EDGAR manifest rows remain in metadata.json under documentFormatFiles (with type of GRAPHIC and a populated documentUrl). Image references inside exhibit HTML therefore resolve to absent local files; the canonical binaries can be retrieved from the SEC URLs preserved in the metadata.
  • Aggregate .txt SGML submission file. EDGAR's combined full-submission text file is not shipped as a separate file inside the folder; its URL is captured in metadata.json as linkToTxt. The dataset instead ships the constituent documents individually with their per-document SGML wrappers preserved.
  • XBRL/iXBRL. Form 40FR12B is not subject to XBRL tagging, so no instance documents, schema files, or label/calculation/presentation linkbases are present, and dataFiles and linkToXbrl are empty by design.
  • Original Canadian SEDAR/SEDAR+ filing wrappers. The dataset preserves the SEC-side EDGAR packaging only; the Canadian regulator's wrapper, cover page, and filing receipt do not appear.

Changes in required content over time

The fundamental disclosure architecture of Form 40FR12B has been stable since the MJDS regime's adoption, but several material content shifts affect filings across the dataset's coverage:

  • Sarbanes-Oxley certifications (post-2002). The certification exhibits required by Sarbanes-Oxley Section 302 began appearing in MJDS filings shortly after the Act's passage in mid-2002, and Section 906 certifications followed. Earlier filings typically lack these certification exhibits.
  • Audit-firm consents and PCAOB auditor identification. As PCAOB registration of foreign auditors became routine through the mid-2000s, the form and content of auditor consents attached as exhibits evolved accordingly, and PCAOB firm identifiers became standard on auditor reports.
  • IFRS transition (Canadian filers, fiscal years on or after 1 January 2011). Canadian publicly accountable enterprises transitioned from Canadian GAAP to IFRS for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2011. Financial-statement exhibits consequently shift from Canadian GAAP to IFRS, with transition-period filings carrying both bases and IFRS 1 first-time-adoption disclosures.
  • NI 52-109 certifications. NI 52-109 certifications of annual and interim filings, and their successive amendments, drove the introduction and evolution of corresponding officer-certification exhibits.
  • Mine-safety, conflict-minerals, and other event-driven disclosures. Although MJDS allows reliance on Canadian disclosure standards, certain SEC-mandated supplemental disclosures (where applicable) appear as additional exhibits in later-period filings, including mine-safety and conflict-minerals reports.
  • Cover-page tagging and registration boilerplate updates. SEC amendments to Section 12(b) registration cover pages and to the Form 40-F instructions have introduced occasional new check-box items and disclosure prompts that surface on the primary document cover page.

The set of EX-99.x exhibits is therefore broadly stable in shape but grows in volume and specificity over time as Canadian and U.S. disclosure requirements have layered new categories of required documents onto the registration package.

Changes in data format over time

Form 40FR12B is filed exclusively as text/HTML wrapped in EDGAR's SGML envelope and has never carried mandatory XBRL or inline XBRL content; the form is outside the scope of the Commission's structured-data tagging mandates. The earliest 2002-era filings already used the SGML-wrapped HTML format that persists to the present, so there is no ASCII-only era to account for within the coverage window. Over time the HTML produced by Canadian filers and their service providers has grown more elaborate — more inline CSS, more tabular layouts, more embedded image references — but the SGML wrapper, the per-document <TYPE>/<SEQUENCE>/<FILENAME>/<DESCRIPTION> pseudo-tags, and the EX-99.x exhibit numbering convention have remained constant. The metadata.json schema applies uniformly across the full date range, so older and newer records can be processed with a single extraction pipeline.

Interpretation and extraction notes

  • Amendments are independent records. Each 40FR12B/A is a distinct accession and a distinct folder. Reconstructing the full lifecycle of a registration requires linking accessions by registrant CIK and fileNo (in entities) rather than by accession number alone.
  • Incorporation by reference dominates. Substantive disclosure is overwhelmingly located in EX-99.x exhibits rather than in the primary 40FR12B document. Extraction strategies that read only the primary document will miss the AIF, financial statements, and MD&A.
  • Sparse, non-contiguous exhibit numbering. EX-99.x numbers carry over from the Canadian continuous-disclosure record, so a single record may contain only exhibit99-93.htm through exhibit99-99.htm (or a similar high-numbered slice). Pipelines should not assume exhibits are numbered from 1 or that gaps indicate missing files.
  • Bilingual and multi-currency content. Exhibits originally filed on SEDAR/SEDAR+ may include French-language content, Canadian-dollar amounts, and Canadian regulatory references (e.g. NI 52-109, NI 51-102). Numerical extraction should not assume USD or English-only text.
  • Province codes. stateOfIncorporation values prefixed with A denote Canadian provinces and territories under SEC location codes; downstream systems treating these as U.S. state codes will misclassify issuers.
  • Tickers list both venues. The tickers array typically mixes Canadian symbols (TSX, TSX-V, CSE) with U.S. listing symbols (Nasdaq, NYSE), reflecting the cross-listing that motivates MJDS use.
  • GRAPHIC manifest rows without binaries. Pipelines that reconcile documentFormatFiles against on-disk files must tolerate GRAPHIC entries whose binaries are intentionally absent; the canonical documentUrl can be used to retrieve the images from EDGAR if needed.
  • Image references in exhibit HTML. Exhibit HTML may render with broken image links when read locally; this is a packaging choice and not an artifact of the underlying filing.
  • SGML wrapper preservation. Because each .htm file retains its <DOCUMENT> envelope, HTML parsers should either strip the SGML header before parsing or use a parser tolerant of SGML pseudo-tags preceding the <html> root.
  • Structured financial data. Because the form does not carry XBRL, any structured financial data must be extracted from the HTML financial-statement exhibits (typically the IFRS primary statements and notes inside an EX-99.x attachment) rather than from XBRL instances.

Who Files or Publishes This Dataset, and When

Who files the record

Each record is a Form 40FR12B (or 40FR12B/A amendment) registration statement submitted to EDGAR by a Canadian issuer using the Multijurisdictional Disclosure System (MJDS) to register a class of securities under Section 12(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The filer is the Canadian issuer itself, acting as registrant.

Eligibility narrows the population sharply. Typical filers are:

  • Operating or holding companies organized under the laws of Canada or a Canadian province or territory.
  • Foreign private issuers within the meaning of Exchange Act Rule 3b-4 that further satisfy MJDS-specific eligibility tests.
  • Issuers subject to the continuous disclosure requirements of a Canadian securities regulatory authority (e.g., OSC, AMF, BCSC, ASC) for at least 12 calendar months immediately preceding the filing, and currently in compliance with those obligations.
  • Issuers meeting the MJDS public float threshold (commonly US$75 million in equity held by non-affiliates). Certain investment-grade non-convertible debt and preferred share offerings, rights offerings, and exchange offers may instead qualify under separate MJDS conditions, but Form 40FR12B is most often used by equity-threshold issuers.

The form is unavailable to U.S. domestic registrants, to non-Canadian foreign private issuers, and to Canadian issuers that fail the MJDS reporting-history or public-float tests. Canadian issuers outside MJDS register under Section 12(b) via Form 8-A paired with Form 20-F, or via Form 10 if they elect domestic-filer treatment.

The legal filer is the registrant. Underwriters, exchange agents, and Canadian counsel may assist, but the signature pages reflect the registrant and its principal officers and directors. A concurrent Form F-X must appoint a U.S. agent for service of process.

When the record is created or required

The triggering event is registration of a class of securities under Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act, which is required to list and trade that class on a U.S. national securities exchange (NYSE, NYSE American, or Nasdaq). Form 40FR12B therefore exists because the issuer is seeking exchange listing; exchange rules in turn require effective Section 12(b) registration before trading begins.

Filing is event-driven, not periodic:

  • The 40FR12B is filed in advance of, and coordinated with, the listing application and the exchange's certification to the SEC under Section 12(d) and Rule 12d1-1.
  • Under Section 12(d), registration becomes effective 30 days after the SEC receives the exchange's certification, or earlier upon SEC acceleration. Filing is timed so SEC review and exchange certification align with the intended trading start date.
  • A Form F-X must accompany or precede the filing, along with required consents of experts (auditors, and where applicable engineers or other technical experts whose reports are incorporated from the Canadian disclosure documents).
  • After effectiveness, the registrant becomes subject to ongoing Exchange Act Section 13(a) reporting, satisfying its annual obligation on Form 40-F (rather than Form 10-K or 20-F) and furnishing Canadian interim and material-change disclosures on Form 6-K.

Amendments on Form 40FR12B/A are also event-driven. They address SEC staff comments, update incorporated Canadian documents (annual information form, audited financial statements, MD&A) as they are refreshed under Canadian rules, correct or supplement disclosure, revise exhibits, or amend the description of securities. Amendments may be filed pre- or post-effectiveness.

Regulatory framework

Form 40FR12B sits at the intersection of three layers:

  • Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 12b-1 et seq., which require registration before listing on a U.S. national securities exchange.
  • The MJDS, adopted in Securities Act Release No. 33-6902 (June 21, 1991) and the companion Exchange Act release, which created Forms 40-F, F-7, F-8, F-9, F-10, F-80, 40FR12B, and 40FR12G as a coordinated set. MJDS lets eligible Canadian issuers satisfy U.S. requirements largely through home-jurisdiction documents prepared under Canadian rules, including National Instruments such as NI 51-102 (continuous disclosure) and NI 52-107 (accounting and auditing standards).
  • The instructions to Form 40-F, which govern the substantive content of Form 40FR12B. The 40FR12B cover form is short and points to exhibits and incorporated Canadian documents required under Form 40-F, including the AIF, audited annual financial statements (under Canadian GAAP, IFRS as issued by the IASB, or U.S. GAAP, depending on eligibility and election), MD&A, and other required exhibits.

Because MJDS substitutes home-jurisdiction disclosure for U.S. line-item requirements, Regulation S-K and Regulation S-X do not apply in the same way they govern Form 10 or 20-F filings. Limited U.S. overlays remain, including reconciliation requirements where applicable, certain beneficial-ownership disclosure, undertakings, expert consents, and the Form F-X agent appointment.

Filer vs. persons described in the filing

The filer is the issuer-registrant. Officers, directors, and significant shareholders appear within incorporated Canadian documents (e.g., the AIF or management information circular) but are not 40FR12B filers themselves. Their separate Section 16 obligations, where applicable, are partially modulated for MJDS issuers by foreign-private-issuer status under Rule 3a12-3.

Historical anchor

MJDS, including Form 40FR12B, was adopted in Securities Act Release No. 33-6902 with mid-1991 effectiveness, and the form has been available since then. Mandatory EDGAR filing for foreign private issuers, including Canadian MJDS filers, was implemented in November 2002. Consistent with that phase-in, the earliest 40FR12B filings in this EDGAR-derived dataset begin in February 2002. Pre-EDGAR 40FR12B filings exist as paper records dating to 1991 but are not included.

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form 40FR12B sits at the intersection of three regimes: the Multijurisdictional Disclosure System (MJDS) for Canadian issuers, Section 12(b) class registration under the Exchange Act, and exchange-listing-triggered registration. The most useful comparisons fall into MJDS siblings, non-MJDS class-registration analogs, and procedural companions.

Form 40FR12G

The direct MJDS sibling. Disclosure content is essentially identical: both wrap the same Canadian documents (AIF, MD&A, audited financials, proxy circular material) in a U.S. registration cover. The split is statutory and trigger-based:

  • 40FR12B: Section 12(b), tied to listing on a U.S. national securities exchange (NYSE, Nasdaq, NYSE American).
  • 40FR12G: Section 12(g), tied to crossing holder/asset thresholds without a U.S. listing.

Use 40FR12B to study U.S.-listed Canadian issuers; 40FR12G captures Canadian Exchange Act registrants without a U.S. exchange listing.

Form 40-F

The MJDS annual report. Same issuer population, different lifecycle stage. 40FR12B is the one-time entry-point registration; 40-F is the recurring annual disclosure that follows. The two are complementary, not substitutes: 40FR12B for the initial registration package, 40-F for the time series of subsequent fiscal years.

Form F-10

The MJDS Securities Act registration for Canadian public offerings. Shares MJDS eligibility (USD 75M public float, 12-month Canadian reporting history) and the use of Canadian-prepared documents, but the statute differs:

  • F-10: registers an offering of securities for sale (transactional, prospectus-driven, Securities Act of 1933).
  • 40FR12B: registers a class for ongoing Exchange Act reporting (status- and listing-driven, Exchange Act of 1934).

Issuers often file both over time, but F-10 belongs to the offering record and 40FR12B to the listing/class-registration record.

Form 8-A12B and 8-A12G

The short-form Section 12 registration available to issuers already reporting under the Exchange Act, including foreign private issuers on 20-F or 40-F. Form 8-A12B is the closest functional analog to 40FR12B (both register a class under Section 12(b) on listing), but the disclosure mechanics diverge sharply:

  • 8-A: thin filing, incorporates content by reference from existing periodic reports.
  • 40FR12B: full disclosure package built from Canadian documents.

A Canadian issuer already filing 40-F will typically register additional classes via 8-A12B rather than another 40FR12B. The two datasets capture distinct populations: first-time MJDS registrants (40FR12B) versus repeat registrations by established reporters (Form 8-A12G).

Form 20-F

The non-MJDS registration and annual report for foreign private issuers. For Canadian issuers, 20-F is the alternative to the MJDS pair (40FR12B + 40-F). Key contrasts:

  • 20-F: U.S.-style disclosure, IFRS or U.S. GAAP reconciliation, extensive risk factor and operating discussion drafted to SEC item requirements.
  • 40FR12B: Canadian-format disclosure filed largely as prepared for the home market.

Use both datasets to compare MJDS and non-MJDS Canadian disclosure; use 40FR12B alone to isolate MJDS registrants.

Form 10, 10-12B, and 10-12G

The domestic-issuer counterparts to 40FR12B/40FR12G. Form 10-12B aligns at the statutory level (Section 12(b), listing-driven); Form 10-12G aligns with 40FR12G (Section 12(g)). The differences are filer population and disclosure regime:

  • Form 10 series: U.S. domestic issuers, U.S. GAAP, U.S.-style item disclosure.
  • 40FR12B: MJDS-eligible Canadian issuers, Canadian-format documents.

Pair the datasets for cross-border studies of initial Exchange Act registration.

Form F-X

The agent-for-service-of-process appointment that MJDS filers must submit alongside most MJDS forms, including 40FR12B. F-X is purely procedural, identifying a U.S. agent for legal process. It carries no business or financial content. Treat it as a companion record useful for confirming MJDS registration completeness, not as a comparable disclosure dataset.

Boundary summary

Form 40FR12B is defined by the conjunction of four conditions:

  1. MJDS eligibility (qualifying Canadian issuers only) — distinguishing it from Form 10-12B and 20-F.
  2. Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act — distinguishing it from F-10 (Securities Act) and 40FR12G (Section 12(g)).
  3. Class registration rather than periodic reporting — distinguishing it from 40-F.
  4. Full registration content rather than incorporation by reference — distinguishing it from 8-A12B.

No other dataset captures the initial U.S.-exchange-listing registration of MJDS Canadian issuers in Canadian disclosure format. For ongoing reporting use 40-F; for offerings use F-10; for 12(g) registrations use 40FR12G; for domestic parallels use 10-12B; for non-MJDS foreign parallels use 20-F; for procedural completeness link to F-X.

Who Uses This Dataset

The professional users of the Form 40FR12B Files Dataset sit at the intersection of cross-border securities law, equity capital markets, IFRS/Canadian-GAAP accounting, and Canadian-issuer research.

Cross-border securities lawyers and disclosure counsel

Counsel running MJDS registrations mine prior 40FR12B and 40FR12B/A filings as drafting precedent. They check cover-page MJDS eligibility reps (USD 75M public float, 12-month Canadian reporting history), align the business description, risk factors, and legal-proceedings disclosure with both AIF conventions and SEC instructions, and read amendment trails to anticipate staff comments. Output: registration statements, comment responses, and precedent libraries.

Equity capital markets and listings advisory bankers

Bankers structuring TSX-to-NYSE/Nasdaq dual listings use the dataset to scope deals for comparable Canadian issuers by size, sector, and reporting framework. They focus on cover-page float and reporting-history reps, the share class being registered, auditor identity, and the financials incorporated by reference, and they benchmark the timeline from initial 40FR12B to 40FR12B/A amendments. Output: pitch books, listing memos, and execution timelines.

Sell-side equity research analysts

Analysts initiating coverage on a newly U.S.-registered Canadian issuer treat the 40FR12B as the canonical introductory document. They extract segment definitions, IFRS or Canadian-GAAP revenue policies, MD&A, and risk factors to build the first model and initiation note, with the filing serving as the historical baseline that subsequent 40-F annual reports update.

Buy-side analysts and credit teams

Equity PMs and credit analysts use 40FR12B as SEC-quality disclosure on Canadian names. Equity work centers on the business description, MD&A, and risk factors; credit work centers on debt schedules, covenant exhibits, contingent liabilities, and going-concern language in the audited financials. Amendments are read for material changes that may signal stress.

Foreign private issuer compliance and reporting teams

In-house securities counsel and SEC reporting managers at Canadian FPIs benchmark how peers describe similar businesses, structure exhibit indexes, disclose related-party arrangements, and handle MJDS-specific items (required exhibits, MD&A presentation, auditor consents). The 40FR12B/A history informs amendment-trigger checklists and SOX/CSOX-aligned reporting calendars.

M&A corporate development and diligence teams

Corp dev and M&A advisers diligencing Canadian targets use the 40FR12B as a single structured source for legal-entity, capitalization, material-contract, and litigation review. Exhibits (material contracts, articles, indentures, auditor consents) provide a curated operative document set; the amendment trail flags historical disclosure issues that surface in reps and warranties negotiations.

Technical accounting and audit teams

Technical-accounting groups and audit engagement partners study how 40FR12B filers present revenue, leases, financial instruments, impairments, and deferred tax under IFRS or Canadian GAAP, including any U.S. GAAP reconciliation footnotes. Auditor-consent exhibits and audit reports support audit-firm selection analysis and PCAOB inspection-readiness work on Canadian audit-firm participation in U.S. registrant audits.

Market-data and corporate-actions engineering teams

Data engineers at market-data vendors and corporate-actions providers ingest the dataset to maintain cross-border registration coverage. They parse metadata and HTML/TXT documents to populate issuer master records, share-class registrations, MJDS eligibility flags, auditor identifiers, and exhibit indexes, using the full 2002-forward history to backfill reference data and stitch U.S. and Canadian identifiers.

Quantitative and event-driven researchers

Event-driven and quant teams use the 40FR12B population as a defined event set: the moment a Canadian issuer enters Section 12(b) registration. Filer CIK, filing dates, and amendment linkages anchor event windows; document text supplies risk-factor topics and MD&A tone features for price, volume, and liquidity studies around filings and 40FR12B/A amendments.

LLM and RAG engineering teams

Teams building retrieval and document-classification systems for cross-border disclosure use the corpus as training and evaluation data for a distinct document class: Canadian-styled prose, IFRS-flavored accounting language, and MJDS-specific structure that differs from native U.S. forms. HTML/TXT documents plus JSON metadata support section labeling, chunking, and grounded answer generation.

Regulators and academic researchers

Securities-regulator policy staff and academics in securities regulation and international accounting use the longitudinal record (2002 to present) to evaluate MJDS: who uses it, filing volumes, amendment frequency, sector mix, and disclosure quality versus non-MJDS FPI filings. The 40FR12B/A series serves as a proxy for staff-comment intensity.

Governance and proxy research teams

Governance analysts at proxy-research firms and stewardship teams at large asset managers use 40FR12B filings to onboard newly cross-listed Canadian issuers. They focus on board, control-person, and related-party disclosures, charter and bylaw exhibits, and voting or shareholder agreements to set governance profiles and voting policies.

Specific Use Cases

The following workflows are grounded in the MJDS registration package, the EX-99.x exhibit set, and the 40FR12B/A amendment trail captured in the dataset.

  • Building an MJDS precedent library for cross-border counsel. Cross-border securities lawyers query prior 40FR12B cover pages for the Section 12(b) registration boilerplate, MJDS eligibility representations (USD 75M float, 12-month Canadian reporting history), General Instruction A/B/C selections, and agent-for-service language, then pull the matching EX-99.x exhibit indexes to assemble a clause-level precedent set keyed by registrant size, province (stateOfIncorporation codes A0-A9), and listing exchange. The output is a drafting workbook used to start new MJDS registrations and respond to staff comment letters.

  • Reconstructing the 40FR12B to 40FR12B/A amendment timeline per registrant. Because each amendment ships as an independent accession, capital-markets bankers and FPI reporting teams join records by registrant CIK and fileNo from entities to rebuild the full review cycle: initial filing date, number of amendments, days between accessions, and the diff in documentFormatFiles across amendments. This drives listing-execution timelines, staff-comment intensity benchmarks, and amendment-trigger checklists.

  • Extracting IFRS financial statements and MD&A from EX-99.x for initiation models. Sell-side and buy-side analysts onboarding a newly U.S.-listed Canadian issuer locate the AIF, audited IFRS financial statements, and MD&A among the high-numbered EX-99.x exhibits (often a sparse slice such as exhibit99-93.htm through exhibit99-99.htm), strip the <DOCUMENT> SGML wrapper, and parse HTML tables into segment, revenue-recognition, debt-schedule, and going-concern fields. The output is the first internal model and initiation note, with the 40FR12B serving as the baseline that subsequent 40-F filings update.

  • Mapping auditor and PCAOB-firm coverage of MJDS issuers. Audit-firm strategy teams and PCAOB inspection-readiness groups parse auditor reports and consents from the EX-99.x exhibits to pull audit-firm name, PCAOB ID, signing office, and IFRS or Canadian-GAAP basis, joined to registrant CIK, SIC, and province. The result is a longitudinal view of which audit firms support Canadian U.S.-registrants by sector and size, and how engagements transition across amendments.

  • Powering a cross-border issuer master with Canadian and U.S. identifiers. Market-data engineers consume metadata.json to populate issuer reference tables: CIK, dual-venue tickers arrays (e.g. ["STKE", "CYFRF"]), fileNo, SIC, fiscal year end, Canadian province via the A0-A9 code, and the registered class from the cover page. Linking these to TSX/TSX-V/CSE symbols yields an MJDS coverage layer used by corporate-actions and security-master pipelines.

  • Defining an event set for entry-into-Section-12(b) studies. Quant and event-driven researchers treat each 40FR12B filedAt timestamp as the event time for a Canadian issuer crossing into Exchange Act registration, with each 40FR12B/A as a secondary event. CIK, filing date, and amendment count anchor event windows; risk-factor and MD&A text from the exhibits supply topic and tone features for price, volume, and liquidity studies around the registration and listing.

  • Training retrieval and section-labeling models on MJDS-styled disclosure. LLM and RAG teams use the SGML-wrapped HTML plus metadata.json as labeled training data for a distinct document class: bilingual Canadian prose, IFRS-flavored accounting language, NI 52-109 certifications, and EX-99.x exhibit headers. The <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, and <DESCRIPTION> pseudo-tags provide weak labels for chunking, exhibit-type classification, and grounded answer generation distinct from native U.S. 10-12B or 20-F corpora.

Dataset Access

The dataset is accessible through three endpoints: a JSON index that describes the dataset and lists every container, a full archive download, and per-container downloads for incremental retrieval.

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-40fr12b-files.json

This endpoint returns the dataset metadata, the full archive download URL, and the complete list of container files with per-container size, record count, last updated timestamp, and download URL. Use it to monitor which containers have changed in the most recent refresh and decide which ones to re-download on a daily basis. This endpoint does not require an API key.

Example response:

Example
1 {
2 "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-69dc-8c66-b0176cfe5e56",
3 "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-40fr12b-files.zip",
4 "name": "Form 40FR12B Files Dataset",
5 "updatedAt": "2026-04-23T02:56:14.702Z",
6 "earliestSampleDate": "2002-02-01",
7 "totalRecords": 18945,
8 "totalSize": 277014543,
9 "formTypes": ["40FR12B", "40FR12B/A"],
10 "containerFormat": "ZIP",
11 "fileTypes": ["HTML", "TXT", "JSON"],
12 "containers": [
13 {
14 "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-40fr12b-files/2026/2026-04.zip",
15 "key": "2026/2026-04.zip",
16 "size": 13818783,
17 "records": 154,
18 "updatedAt": "2026-04-23T02:56:14.702Z"
19 }
20 ]
21 }

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-40fr12b-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads the complete dataset as a single ZIP archive containing all monthly containers from February 2002 to the present. This endpoint requires an API key.

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-40fr12b-files/2026/2026-04.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads one monthly container file rather than the full dataset. Use the downloadUrl values from the index JSON containers array to fetch specific months. This endpoint requires an API key.

Frequently Asked Questions

What forms does this dataset cover?

The dataset covers Form 40FR12B (initial registration of a class of securities by an eligible Canadian issuer under Section 12(b) of the Exchange Act via the Multijurisdictional Disclosure System) and Form 40FR12B/A (amendments to such registration statements). Both initial filings and amendments are present, and each amendment is shipped as its own complete record rather than as a delta against the initial filing.

What does one record in this dataset represent?

One record corresponds to a single accession-numbered EDGAR submission of Form 40FR12B or Form 40FR12B/A. Each record is a folder named after the SEC accession number with dashes stripped, containing a normalized metadata.json index, the primary registration document, and every text-bearing EX-99.x exhibit attached to the original EDGAR submission, all carrying the original SGML <DOCUMENT> wrapper.

Who is required to file Form 40FR12B?

The filer is the Canadian issuer itself, acting as registrant. Eligibility is restricted to Canadian-organized operating or holding companies that qualify as foreign private issuers under Exchange Act Rule 3b-4, have at least 12 months of continuous Canadian reporting history, and meet the MJDS public-float threshold (commonly US$75 million in equity held by non-affiliates). U.S. domestic registrants and non-Canadian foreign private issuers cannot use the form.

What time period does the dataset cover?

Coverage begins on 1 February 2002, consistent with the November 2002 implementation of mandatory EDGAR filing for foreign private issuers, and runs forward to the present. Pre-EDGAR Form 40FR12B paper filings dating back to MJDS adoption in mid-1991 are not included.

What file format is the dataset distributed in?

The dataset is distributed as monthly ZIP containers (e.g. 2025/2025-09.zip) holding HTML, TXT, and JSON files. Each accession folder contains a metadata.json index plus one or more .htm files retaining the original EDGAR SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope. Form 40FR12B is not subject to XBRL tagging, so no XBRL instance documents or linkbases are included, and dataFiles and linkToXbrl are empty by design.

How does this dataset differ from the Form 40-F dataset?

Form 40FR12B and Form 40-F cover the same MJDS-eligible Canadian issuer population but at different lifecycle stages. Form 40FR12B is the one-time entry-point registration filed when a Canadian issuer first registers a class of securities under Section 12(b) for U.S. exchange listing, while Form 40-F is the recurring annual disclosure filed in subsequent fiscal years. The two datasets are complementary, not substitutes.

How does this dataset differ from Form 8-A12B?

Both forms register a class of securities under Section 12(b), but the disclosure mechanics differ sharply. Form 8-A12B is a thin filing that incorporates content by reference from existing Exchange Act periodic reports, used by issuers already reporting on Form 40-F or Form 20-F. Form 40FR12B is the full disclosure package built from Canadian documents (AIF, audited financials, MD&A, exhibits) and is most commonly used when no effective MJDS Securities Act registration is on file. The two datasets capture distinct populations: first-time MJDS registrants (40FR12B) versus repeat registrations by established reporters (8-A12B).