Form SF-3 Files Dataset

The Form SF-3 Files Dataset is a structured archive of every Form SF-3 and Form SF-3/A submission filed to EDGAR — the shelf registration statement and its amendments used under the Securities Act of 1933 for public offerings of asset-backed securities (ABS) as defined in Regulation AB. Each record is one accession-numbered EDGAR filing event, bundling a metadata.json manifest with every HTML document in the submission (base prospectus, exhibits, fee tables, opinions, certifications). The underlying filings are made by ABS depositors — bankruptcy-remote subsidiaries of sponsors in auto finance, credit cards, mortgages, equipment leasing, student loans, and similar repeat-issuer programs — and gated by Regulation AB II eligibility, including the depositor CEO certification regarding the adequacy of securitized pool cash flows. The dataset covers SF-3 and SF-3/A filings from June 1, 2015 (the Regulation AB II compliance date that introduced the form) to the present, distributed as a ZIP container with HTML and JSON file types.

Dataset APIs

Dataset Files

What This Dataset Contains

The dataset contains every Form SF-3 and Form SF-3/A submission to EDGAR from June 2015 to present. Form SF-3 is the asset-backed-specific analogue of Form S-3, introduced by the Commission's 2014 Regulation AB II rule package and made mandatory for shelf-eligible ABS offerings on June 1, 2015. It is filed under the Securities Act of 1933 (the act field on each record reads "33") and is restricted to issuers meeting Regulation AB II's registrant and transaction eligibility requirements — most notably the depositor CEO certification regarding the design of the securitization and the reasonable belief that the asset pool's cash flows will be adequate to service the registered securities.

The underlying filing is a prospectus-form registration statement: it registers a base shelf under Rule 415, with individual takedowns subsequently offered through Rule 424(h) preliminary prospectuses and Rule 424(b) final prospectus supplements (which are filed under their own accession numbers and are not part of this dataset). The SF-3 itself contains the base prospectus and the legal, structural, and pool-description framework that every takedown will operate under. An SF-3/A amends that framework — frequently to address staff comments, refresh disclosures, file remaining exhibits, or revise the fee table.

The dataset is delivered as a ZIP container; file types inside are HTML (one document per filing-package document, each preserved with its EDGAR SGML wrapper) and JSON (the per-record metadata.json manifest). Because Form SF-3 was introduced in 2015, the ASCII/.txt filing era and the HTML transition that Form S-1 and S-3 went through in the late 1990s do not apply: every SF-3 and SF-3/A in the dataset has been filed in HTML inside an SGML wrapper from the outset.

Content Structure of a Single Record

A single record in the Form SF-3 Files Dataset is one accession-numbered EDGAR submission of either Form SF-3 (the initial shelf registration statement for asset-backed securities) or Form SF-3/A (a pre- or post-effective amendment to a previously filed SF-3). The physical unit of the record is one folder whose name is the 18-digit accession number with the two dashes removed — for example, folder 000119312525287427 represents accession 0001193125-25-287427. That folder bundles a metadata.json describing the submission together with each HTML document that was part of the original EDGAR filing package. One folder corresponds to one accession number and one registration-statement filing event, regardless of how many exhibits the depositor attached or how many co-registrants joined the submission.

Because Form SF-3 is the Securities Act registration vehicle introduced under Regulation AB II for shelf offerings of asset-backed securities, a record almost always sits at the trust/depositor pair level: a master trust (the issuing entity) and the depositor that transfers receivables to it appear as co-filers under a shared base 333- file number, distinguished by suffixes such as -01. The dataset treats cover filings and their amendments as independent records.

Two-layer content structure

A record has two structural layers that must be reconciled by any consumer.

The outer layer is the dataset packaging — a metadata.json together with the set of HTML documents materialized inside the accession folder.

The inner layer, present inside every .htm file, is the EDGAR SGML document wrapper — the same wrapper EDGAR uses to concatenate documents inside a complete-submission .txt. Each HTML document therefore begins not with <html> but with an SGML header block of the form

          1
          <DOCUMENT>
        

          2
          <TYPE>SF-3/A
        

          3
          <SEQUENCE>1
        

          4
          <FILENAME>d12556dsf3a.htm
        

          5
          <DESCRIPTION>SF-3/A
        

          6
          <TEXT>
        

          7
          <HTML><HEAD>...
        

and ends with closing </TEXT></DOCUMENT> markers after the HTML body. The <TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, and <DESCRIPTION> lines mirror the corresponding entry in documentFormatFiles[], so the SGML envelope and the JSON manifest are two parallel views of the same submission inventory.

The complete-submission .txt (the SGML file in which EDGAR concatenates every document for storage) is referenced via the linkToTxt URL and appears as a blank-sequence entry in documentFormatFiles[], but the consolidated .txt itself is not materialized in the archive. Image documents of type GRAPHIC (cover-page logos, deal-structure diagrams, transaction-party flowcharts) are also described in metadata but excluded from the archive.

The metadata.json manifest

metadata.json is the structured anchor of every record and is always present. Its top-level keys are:

• formType — "SF-3" for initial registrations or "SF-3/A" for amendments.
• accessionNo — the dashed EDGAR accession number (e.g. "0001193125-25-287427"); stripping the dashes yields the folder name.
• description — the EDGAR human-readable form label, such as "Form SF-3/A - [Amend]".
• filedAt — ISO-8601 filing timestamp with timezone offset, e.g. "2025-11-19T11:03:15-05:00".
• linkToFilingDetails — URL to the EDGAR -index.htm filing index page.
• linkToTxt — URL to the complete-submission .txt SGML wrapper on EDGAR.
• linkToHtml — URL to the primary HTML registration-statement document on EDGAR.
• linkToXbrl — URL to the XBRL instance; typically empty for SF-3 because Regulation AB II's structured-data obligations attach to ABS-EE asset data files, not to the SF-3 registration statement body.
• documentFormatFiles[] — the inventory of every document EDGAR received in the submission.
• entities[] — one entry per filer / co-registrant.
• seriesAndClassesContractsInformation — present for filings that disclose series/class structures; commonly empty for SF-3 cover registrations, which register a generic shelf rather than a priced series.
• dataFiles[] — descriptors for XBRL or other data files when applicable; routinely empty for SF-3.
• id — an internal hexadecimal identifier for the record.

documentFormatFiles[]

Each entry describes one document EDGAR received. Fields are:

• sequence — EDGAR sequence number ("1" for the primary registration statement, subsequent integers for exhibits, a single blank space for the complete-submission .txt wrapper).
• size — byte size as a string.
• documentUrl — absolute EDGAR archive URL whose trailing filename matches the file inside the accession folder.
• description — free-text label, often identical to type.
• type — the EDGAR document-type code (SF-3, SF-3/A, EX-4.2, EX-FILING FEES, GRAPHIC, etc.).

For each entry whose documentUrl ends in .htm or .html, the file exists locally inside the accession folder under the same basename. GRAPHIC and blank-sequence wrapper entries are referenced in metadata only.

entities[]

Each entity object captures one filer. Typical fields are:

• companyName — including a parenthetical role tag such as (Filer).
• cik — EDGAR Central Index Key.
• fileNo — SEC file number under the 333- series for Securities Act registrations, with co-registrants distinguished by suffixes such as -01.
• filmNo — EDGAR film number.
• irsNo — IRS employer identification number.
• sic — SIC code with label, typically "6189 Asset-Backed Securities", consistent with the form's scope.
• act — "33" for Securities Act registrations.
• type — entity-level form type, mirroring formType.
• stateOfIncorporation and fiscalYearEnd — populated for the lead filer (the latter as MMDD, e.g. "1231"); co-registrant entries generally omit these but otherwise share the same shape.

The entities[] list reflects the depositor and the issuing entity (master trust) as co-registrants on a shared base file number, which is the standard SF-3 filing pattern under Regulation AB II.

The HTML documents inside the accession folder

The accession folder contains the registration-statement document plus each exhibit document, every one wrapped in the EDGAR SGML envelope described above. Filenames are not normalized — they come straight from the filer's working stems (for example d12556dsf3a.htm for the primary document, d12556dex42.htm for an EX-4.2 exhibit, d12556dexfilingfees.htm for the fee-table exhibit). Below the SGML header, the HTML body is the actual disclosure content.

Primary SF-3 / SF-3/A registration statement (sequence 1)

The primary document carries the cover page and the base prospectus.

The cover page identifies the issuing entity and the depositor by name, lists the 333- file numbers for the shelf and any co-registrants, names the underwriters or specifies that they will be named in a takedown supplement, declares the Securities Act registration status, displays the Rule 415 shelf checkbox and any Rule 462 election checkboxes, and includes the depositor CEO certification block required by Regulation AB II for shelf-eligible ABS.

The body of the primary document is the base prospectus. Its standard architecture is:

• A summary of the transaction structure, the parties, and the offered classes.
• Asset-class-specific risk factors (credit-card receivables, auto loans/leases, equipment leases, student loans, RMBS, and so on, depending on the program).
• The receivables / asset-pool description, including eligibility criteria, asset-selection process, representations and warranties about pool assets, and disclosure of pool-level concentration and credit characteristics.
• The cash-flow waterfall and credit-enhancement mechanics — subordination, overcollateralization, reserve accounts, excess spread, and swap-counterparty arrangements where applicable.
• Descriptions of the transaction parties: sponsor, depositor, originator(s), servicer, indenture trustee, owner trustee, asset representations reviewer, custodian, and backup servicer.
• The pooling-and-servicing or indenture mechanics — how collections are applied, events of default, servicer-termination triggers, the asset representations review procedure mandated by Regulation AB II, and the dispute-resolution provisions for repurchase demands.
• Static-pool data disclosures and incorporation by reference of historical static-pool information.
• ERISA, tax, legal-investment, and plan-of-distribution sections.
• Use-of-proceeds, ratings, and legal-opinion references.
• Signature pages for the depositor, its directors, and (for many programs) the issuing-entity signatories.

For SF-3/A amendments, the primary document either restates the entire prospectus or, for narrower amendments, carries a partial restatement with explanatory introductory language; the substantive payload in narrow amendments often lies in newly filed or refreshed exhibits rather than in the primary document body.

Exhibits

The Item 601 exhibit table applies to SF-3 with the Regulation AB II additions. The exhibit types found in this dataset include:

• EX-3.x — organizational documents of the depositor (certificate of formation / incorporation, LLC agreement, bylaws).
• EX-4.x — the indenture, trust agreement, pooling-and-servicing agreement, or series supplement template; EX-4.2 is frequently the form of series supplement that will be completed at each takedown.
• EX-5.x — legality opinion of counsel concerning the validity of the registered securities.
• EX-8.x — tax opinion of counsel.
• EX-10.x — material contracts such as servicing agreements, administration agreements, and asset-purchase or sale-and-contribution agreements.
• EX-23.x — consents of independent accountants and counsel.
• EX-24.x — powers of attorney for signatories.
• EX-25.x — Form T-1 statement of eligibility of the indenture trustee under the Trust Indenture Act.
• EX-33, EX-34, EX-35 — Regulation AB II servicer assessments of compliance, attestation reports of registered public accountants, and servicer compliance statements when filed with or incorporated into the registration statement.
• EX-36 — depositor CEO certification, where filed as a separate exhibit rather than embedded in the primary document.
• EX-FILING FEES — Exhibit 107.1 "Calculation of Filing Fee Table" required under Rule 457 since the Commission's 2022 fee-modernization amendments. For SF-3 it uses Table 1 (Newly Registered and Carry Forward Securities) and itemizes the registered classes, the aggregate offering amount, the fee rate, and the net fee due or carried forward.

Each exhibit is a separate HTML document with its own SGML wrapper, its own EDGAR sequence, and a type field that captures the exhibit code verbatim — EX-4.2, EX-FILING FEES, and so on. Filenames are not normalized, so the relationship between an exhibit file and its semantic role must be derived from documentFormatFiles[].type or from the SGML <TYPE> header inside the file rather than from the filename stem.

What the dataset includes versus excludes

Included in every record:

• The metadata.json manifest with the filing header, entity list, and document inventory.
• Every textual document in the EDGAR submission, materialized as an HTML file under the original filer filename, each wrapped in the EDGAR SGML <DOCUMENT>...</DOCUMENT> envelope.

Referenced in metadata.json but excluded from the archive:

• Image documents of type GRAPHIC (JPEG, GIF, PNG cover-page logos, deal-structure diagrams, transaction-party flowcharts). Their descriptors and original EDGAR URLs remain in documentFormatFiles[], but the binaries are not stored locally.
• The complete-submission .txt SGML wrapper that EDGAR uses to bundle every document for storage. The per-document HTML files already reproduce the SGML envelope around each document, making the consolidated .txt redundant for most consumers.

Outside the scope of an SF-3 record entirely:

• Subsequent prospectus supplements (Rule 424(h) preliminary and Rule 424(b) final) for takedowns off the registered shelf — filed under their own accession numbers as separate EDGAR submissions and belonging to different form types.
• Regulation AB II asset-level disclosures filed on Form ABS-EE under separate accession numbers.
• 10-D distribution reports, 10-K annual servicer reports, and 8-K event filings by the issuing entity or depositor that the base prospectus incorporates by reference.

Structural and regulatory evolution since June 2015

The dataset's June 2015 start aligns with the Regulation AB II compliance date for SF-3 shelf filings. Several regulatory milestones have shaped record contents over the dataset's lifetime:

• June 1, 2015 — Reg AB II compliance. The form itself came into existence as the mandatory shelf-registration vehicle for ABS, displacing Form S-3 for asset-backed transactions. From this date every SF-3 record carries the depositor CEO certification, the asset-representations-reviewer disclosure, the asset-level dispute-resolution provisions for repurchase demands, and the investor-communication mechanism for unaffiliated investors.
• November 23, 2016 — Reg AB II asset-level data effective for residential-mortgage, auto-loan, auto-lease, debt-securities, and resecuritization ABS. Although the asset-level data files themselves are filed on Form ABS-EE outside this dataset, SF-3 records for affected asset classes filed after this date contain conformed pool-description and disclosure language tying back to the standardized asset-level data points.
• May 2022 — Filing-fee modernization (Rule 457 amendments). The EX-FILING FEES exhibit (Exhibit 107.1, the "Calculation of Filing Fee Table") became a required, structured exhibit on SF-3 and SF-3/A filings, replacing the prior practice of stating the fee table on the cover page or in an unstructured fee exhibit. From this point on virtually every record carries an EX-FILING FEES document containing the structured Rule 457 fee-calculation tables (Table 1 for newly registered and carry-forward securities, with other tables empty for ABS shelf base registrations).
• Ongoing. Periodic updates to Reg AB II Item 1100 disclosure standards, to static-pool disclosure conventions, and to ERISA and tax disclosure templates have changed the body content of the primary prospectus over the dataset's lifetime, but the surrounding structural anatomy — primary SF-3/A document at sequence 1, sequentially numbered exhibits afterward, blank-sequence .txt wrapper described in metadata — has remained stable.

Interpretation and extraction notes

• The accession folder is the canonical record key. Two separate filings — for example an SF-3 and a subsequent SF-3/A by the same depositor on the same shelf — are two records under two different accession numbers; the dataset does not consolidate them into a shelf life-cycle entity.
• Co-registrants on a single SF-3 submission share an accession folder and appear as multiple entries in entities[]. The base 333- file number identifies the shelf; the -01, -02 suffixes distinguish co-registrants on that shelf.
• The primary registration-statement document is identifiable by documentFormatFiles[].sequence == "1" and by type matching SF-3 or SF-3/A. Cross-checking against the SGML <TYPE> and <SEQUENCE> lines inside the HTML file provides a redundant parser-friendly identification path.
• Exhibit semantics are encoded in the type field, not in filenames. The filer's filename stems (d12556dex42.htm, d12556dexfilingfees.htm) are working slugs and should not be parsed for meaning.
• Incorporation by reference is heavy in SF-3 prospectuses, particularly to prior 10-D, 10-K, and 8-K filings by the issuing entity or depositor. Those incorporated documents are not part of this dataset and must be retrieved separately if downstream analysis requires them.
• GRAPHIC documents — deal-structure diagrams, transaction-party flowcharts — sometimes carry substantive structural information. Because they are excluded from the archive, any visual extraction step must fetch them from the EDGAR URL in documentFormatFiles[].documentUrl.
• An SF-3/A record does not necessarily restate the entire prospectus. Some amendments are narrow — for example, the substantive payload may be a newly filed legal opinion (EX-5), a refreshed fee table (EX-FILING FEES), or a single replaced exhibit. The presence and relative size of exhibits versus the primary document is a useful proxy for the amendment's scope.
• The SGML wrapper around each HTML payload means naive HTML parsers may read the leading <DOCUMENT>/<TYPE>/<SEQUENCE> lines as document text. For clean extraction, strip everything before the first <HTML> or <html> tag (or before the <TEXT> marker) and everything after the closing </TEXT> / </DOCUMENT> markers, or read document-level metadata from metadata.json and skip the SGML header on the HTML side.
• The base prospectus generally does not include final pricing, named underwriters for a specific deal, the final pool composition, or per-class CUSIPs and offering sizes — those appear in the later Rule 424(h) / 424(b) supplements outside this dataset. SF-3 disclosure is structural and program-level rather than transaction-priced.

Who Files or Publishes This Dataset, and When

Who files the record

The registrant on Form SF-3 is the depositor in an asset-backed securities transaction. Each record is a single SF-3 or SF-3/A submission to EDGAR, identified by one accession number, establishing or amending a shelf registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933 for the future public offer and sale of ABS.

The depositor is a special-purpose subsidiary, typically of the sponsor, organized solely to receive financial assets from the sponsor or originators and transfer them to the issuing entity. Under Regulation AB (Item 1101), the depositor is treated as the issuer of the asset-backed securities for Securities Act purposes. The depositor signs and files the SF-3, files Rule 424(b) prospectus supplements for each takedown, and carries the ongoing Exchange Act reporting (Forms 10-D, 10-K, 8-K, ABS-EE) for the resulting issuing entity.

Other transaction parties named in the filing but not the registrant:

• Sponsor — organizes the transaction, transfers assets, and typically holds the Regulation RR risk-retention interest. Often a bank, captive finance company, mortgage originator, or specialty lender.
• Originator(s) — may or may not be the sponsor.
• Issuing entity — the statutory trust, common law trust, or LLC that holds the pool and issues the securities. Named in the registration but does not sign as registrant.
• Servicer, master servicer, subservicer, trustee, indenture trustee, custodian, and asset representations reviewer.

In practice, the filer population is dominated by depositors affiliated with auto-finance captives, credit card master trust sponsors, mortgage finance companies, equipment lease lessors, student loan finance companies, and similar repeat ABS issuers.

When the record is created

Initial SF-3 filings

An initial SF-3 is triggered when a depositor establishes or refreshes a shelf program for an ongoing ABS platform. The common triggers are:

• Launching a new platform for a given asset class (auto loan, auto lease, credit card master trust, RMBS, CMBS, equipment lease, student loan, etc.).
• Refreshing an expiring shelf. Under Rule 415(a)(5), a shelf is generally usable for three years from effectiveness, after which a new registration statement is required.
• Replacing a pre-Reg-AB-II Form S-3 ABS shelf with a Reg-AB-II-compliant SF-3 (the original 2014–2015 transition wave).

To use Form SF-3, the depositor must satisfy two layers of shelf eligibility, re-evaluated at each takedown:

• Registrant eligibility (General Instruction I.A) — timely filing of all required Exchange Act reports during the prior 12 months by the depositor and affiliated depositors in the same asset class, including Forms 10-D, 10-K, 8-K, ABS-EE, and Reg AB Item 1122/1123 servicer reports.
• Transaction eligibility (General Instruction I.B) — four ABS-specific conditions replacing the former ratings-based test:
  1. A CEO depositor certification under Rule 401(g)(1) filed as an exhibit.
  2. Appointment of an asset representations reviewer triggered by a delinquency threshold plus investor vote.
  3. A dispute resolution provision (mediation or arbitration) for unresolved repurchase requests.
  4. An investor communication mechanism, with requests disclosed on Form 10-D.

A depositor that fails registrant eligibility must use Form SF-1 until the failure is cured or waived under Rule 401(g)(4).

SF-3/A amendments

SF-3/A is the amendment vehicle. The dataset captures amendments filed in several contexts:

• Pre-effective amendments responding to SEC staff comments, or adding the CEO certification, transaction agreement exhibits, opinions, consents, or revised Schedule AL items.
• Post-effective amendments under Section 8(c) and Rule 462 to update the registration for material changes, add or substitute a depositor or sponsor, modify asset class scope, or refresh Reg AB disclosure.
• Post-effective amendments to deregister unsold securities or terminate the shelf.

Amendments do not extend the Rule 415(a)(5) three-year shelf life; a new SF-3 is required to renew capacity.

Takedown-level timing (not in this dataset)

The SF-3 itself does not produce offerings. Each public ABS deal is a takedown under Rule 424(b)(2) or Rule 424(b)(5), accompanied by a Form ABS-EE asset-level data filing. Timing rules at takedown:

• Preliminary prospectus filed at least three business days before first sale.
• Form ABS-EE filed at least five business days before first sale.
• Registrant eligibility recertified as of the takedown date.
• Annual evaluation of registrant compliance filed within 90 days after the depositor's fiscal year end for as long as the shelf is in use.

Important distinctions

• Form SF-1 vs SF-3 — Non-shelf public ABS offerings, and offerings by depositors that fail shelf eligibility, go on Form SF-1, not SF-3.
• Form S-3 / F-3 vs SF-3 — Non-ABS shelves (corporate debt, bank holding company senior notes, medium-term note programs) use S-3 or F-3 even when the same parent group also sponsors ABS through a separate depositor.
• Private ABS — Rule 144A and Regulation D ABS (most CLOs, much private-label RMBS) are unregistered and never appear on SF-3.
• Exempt securities — Securities issued or guaranteed by Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and municipal ABS are exempt from Securities Act registration and fall outside this regime.
• CIK identity — The CIK on an SF-3 is the depositor's, distinct from the sponsor's and from each issuing entity's CIK. Successive series within one shelf each have their own separately named issuing entity.
• CEO certification — Signed by the depositor's CEO (not the sponsor's or issuing entity's). A new certification is required at each takedown; a change in CEO does not by itself trigger an SF-3/A.
• Deal-level documents — Rule 424(b) prospectus supplements and ABS-EE filings carry the actual offering and asset-level data. They share the depositor's CIK and the SF-3 file number but are separate submission types not contained in this dataset.

Historical scope

Form SF-3 was adopted by Release No. 33-9638 (September 4, 2014) as part of Regulation AB II, which removed ratings-based shelf eligibility following the Dodd-Frank Act. Compliance was required for new ABS shelves by November 23, 2015, and existing S-3 ABS shelves had to be replaced by the same date. The dataset's earliest record on June 1, 2015 reflects the start of the transition filing wave. There is no pre-2015 SF-3 history; the predecessor regime sits on Form S-3 and is not in this dataset.

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form SF-3 sits at a narrow intersection of Securities Act registration and structured-finance disclosure: a shelf registration limited to asset-backed securities under Regulation AB, gated by transaction- and registrant-level eligibility conditions. Its closest neighbors are the other ABS registration form, the corporate shelf forms it was carved out of, the downstream prospectus supplements that complete each takedown, and the ongoing ABS reporting datasets that follow effectiveness.

Form SF-1 (non-shelf ABS registration)

The non-shelf counterpart to SF-3, used by ABS issuers that fail SF-3 eligibility (no prior registered ABS history, no depositor CEO cash-flow certification, or other failed Regulation AB transaction conditions). Both register ABS under the Securities Act and share most of the disclosure architecture (pool description, transaction parties, waterfall, risk factors). Differences: SF-1 registers a single, fully-specified offering; SF-3 registers a program enabling multiple later takedowns via 424 supplements. SF-1 has no shelf eligibility gates and no CEO certification. SF-1 prospectuses are deal-complete at effectiveness; SF-3 base prospectuses are programmatic and rely on later supplementation.

Form S-3 (corporate shelf)

SF-3 was carved out of S-3 by the 2014 Regulation AB II rulemaking. Both are shelf base registrations followed by 424 takedowns, but they cover different security types: S-3 covers debt and equity of operating companies; SF-3 covers ABS issued through bankruptcy-remote depositors. Eligibility logic also diverges: S-3 keys on public float, reporting history, and timely-filing status; SF-3 keys on Regulation AB transaction criteria and the depositor CEO certification of pool cash-flow adequacy. An S-3 dataset is not a substitute for SF-3 even when both describe shelf takedowns.

Rule 424 prospectus supplements

424(b)(2)/(5) supplements take down individual offerings from an SF-3 shelf and carry the deal-specific disclosure: final pool tape summary, tranche structure, pricing, credit enhancement, and waterfall mechanics. The SF-3 base prospectus is typically generic; the operative offering document is SF-3 plus the 424 supplement. Treating an SF-3 as a complete offering record misses nearly all deal-level content.

Form ABS-EE and Schedule AL (asset-level data)

ABS-EE is the ongoing asset-level data form prescribed by Regulation AB, filed as an exhibit (Schedule AL via EX-102 XML) alongside Form 10-D for covered asset classes (RMBS, auto, debt securities, resecuritizations). The relationship is sequential, not substitutive: SF-3 registers the program and describes the pool in HTML prose and tables; ABS-EE delivers post-issuance, machine-readable loan- or asset-level performance data. For empirical pool analysis, ABS-EE is operative; SF-3 supplies the legal and structural context.

Form 10-D (distribution and servicer reports)

10-D is the periodic distribution report for each ABS issuing entity, typically monthly, summarizing collections, distributions, delinquencies, losses, and other servicer-reported metrics. SF-3 describes the contractual mechanics and projected behavior at registration; 10-D reports realized performance period after period. Complementary, not overlapping; joining by CIK or issuing-entity identifier is the common analytical pattern.

Free Writing Prospectuses (FWPs)

Filed under Rule 433, Free Writing Prospectuses are marketing-stage written communications: computational materials, collateral term sheets, ratings presentations. In ABS deals they often present the earliest and most analytically rich pool stratifications, in formats neither the SF-3 base nor the 424 supplement reproduces. FWPs run on a marketing cadence; SF-3 runs on a registration cadence.

Form 10-K (annual ABS reports under Regulation AB)

ABS 10-Ks differ sharply from corporate Form 10-Ks: no issuer MD&A or audited financials, but Item 1122 attestation reports and Item 1123 servicer assessments. Relationship to SF-3 mirrors 10-D: SF-3 establishes compliance obligations; 10-K shows whether they were met annually. Do not conflate ABS 10-Ks with operating-company 10-Ks despite the shared form number.

SF-3 vs SF-3/A (amendments within this dataset)

SF-3 is the initial shelf registration; SF-3/A is an amendment, filed pre-effectiveness in response to SEC staff comments (often the substantive form of the effective filing) or post-effectiveness to update the base shelf. The operative legal document for a program is usually the most recent SF-3/A. Counting only initial SF-3 filings undercounts active shelves; counting each SF-3/A as independent overcounts. Reconstructing effective registration state requires tracking the SF-3 to SF-3/A chain by CIK and file number.

More distant: Forms S-1 and F-3

S-1 (corporate non-shelf) and Form F-3 (foreign private issuer shelf) overlap with SF-3 only procedurally as Securities Act registration statements. Neither covers ABS; foreign ABS issuers accessing U.S. markets use SF-3 or SF-1, not F-3. Useful as corporate-side reference points, not as substitutes.

Boundary summary

Form SF-3 is narrower than S-3 and F-3 (limited to Regulation AB ABS), narrower than SF-1 (shelf eligibility and CEO certification gates), and earlier-stage than ABS-EE, 10-D, and ABS 10-K (which report post-issuance performance). It is also incomplete as an offering record without its 424(b) supplements and contemporaneous FWPs. The SF-3 Files Dataset is best understood as the registration-layer foundation of a multi-document ABS disclosure chain: base prospectus, program-level eligibility documentation, exhibits, and certifications, paired downstream with asset-level, periodic, and annual reporting datasets. Substitution among these is rarely appropriate; combination almost always is.

Who Uses This Dataset

The Form SF-3 Files Dataset is read by professionals throughout the securitization stack, each of whom draws on a different layer of the SF-3 record — from structural mechanics and credit-enhancement waterfalls to CEO certifications and amendment metadata.

ABS Research Analysts

Sell-side and buy-side structured-credit analysts track shelf activity across asset classes (autos, cards, equipment, student loans, floorplan, esoteric ABS). They extract eligibility criteria, pool-level statistics, the payment waterfall, credit-enhancement mechanics (subordination, OC, reserves), and trigger logic to forecast issuance pipelines and write relative-value notes comparing shelves across sponsors.

Fixed-Income Portfolio Managers and Securitization Desks

PMs running structured-credit and core-plus mandates use SF-3 to map the registered universe of forthcoming ABS deals and the legal envelope that 424B take-downs will inherit. They focus on permitted asset types, concentration limits, and depositor eligibility. Underwriting and syndicate desks reference peer shelves to calibrate structure templates and benchmark documentation when negotiating new programs.

Securitization Counsel and Compliance Officers

Disclosure counsel drafting SF-3 base prospectuses use the dataset to study how peer depositors handle Reg AB Item 1100-series disclosure, transaction-party descriptions, CEO certifications, and risk factors. Compliance officers monitor SF-3/A amendments to anticipate SEC staff comments and maintain shelf eligibility under Reg AB II registrant and transaction requirements.

Rating Agency Analysts

ABS analysts at rating agencies use SF-3 as the legal and structural backdrop for pre-sale and surveillance work. Key sections include reps and warranties, repurchase mechanics, asset-review provisions, servicer replacement triggers, indenture covenants, and the issuing-entity structure that constrains every future take-down.

Regulatory and Policy Researchers

Staff at financial regulators and policy bodies track shelf-registration activity, study how Reg AB II has been operationalized since 2015, and observe shifts in asset-class composition. They use both metadata trends (SF-3 vs SF-3/A volume, amendment cadence, asset mix) and substantive disclosure language for systemic-risk monitoring and rulemaking reviews.

Investor Due-Diligence Teams

Diligence teams at institutional ABS investors review the shelf framework before evaluating any specific take-down: sponsor and depositor descriptions, servicing arrangements, originator underwriting summaries, asset-pool eligibility, and related-party arrangements. Because 424B supplements incorporate the SF-3 by reference, the base prospectus is the foundational document in investment memos and credit committee packages.

Counterparty Credit Analysts

Credit analysts covering bank and specialty-finance sponsors, depositors, and servicers use SF-3 to see how counterparties fund originations through securitization. They map sponsor business descriptions, originator underwriting standards, servicing platforms, and depositor SPEs into exposure and conduit models.

Academic Researchers

Finance and law academics use the corpus to test hypotheses on disclosure quality, shelf eligibility, CEO certification effects, and the post-Reg-AB-II evolution of asset classes. Full-text risk factors, asset descriptions, and standardized accession-level packaging support reproducible empirical work and event studies.

NLP and Data Science Teams

Teams building retrieval, classification, and extraction systems use SF-3 as an asset-class-rich structured-finance corpus. They train models to extract pool statistics, identify transaction parties, classify risk-factor categories, segment prospectus sections, and detect SF-3 vs SF-3/A diffs. Accession-keyed metadata links shelves to downstream take-downs and ongoing Reg AB reports.

Quant Researchers in Structured Credit

Quant teams build features describing each issuer's shelf framework, eligible collateral, structural flexibility, and amendment history. Amendment cadence proxies SEC review intensity; both feed issuance-timing models and primary-market participation strategies.

Issuer Treasury and IR Teams

Treasury and IR groups at ABS-issuing sponsors benchmark their own SF-3 disclosure against peer shelves, identify language that has cleared SEC review, calibrate registered asset scope, and prepare for shelf refresh cycles as the three-year Rule 415 expiry approaches.

Specific Use Cases

The Form SF-3 Files Dataset supports a focused set of structured-finance workflows that operate on the base prospectus, exhibits, and accession-level metadata of ABS shelf registrations.

• Mapping the active ABS shelf universe by sponsor and asset class. Walk entities[] (depositor and issuing entity), the sic field (6189 Asset-Backed Securities), and the 333- base file number across SF-3 and SF-3/A records to reconstruct each sponsor's current effective shelf chain. This produces a sponsor-by-asset-class registered-capacity table that feeds issuance-pipeline forecasts, peer-shelf comparisons for underwriting desks, and target lists for buy-side primary-market participation.

• Benchmarking peer-shelf disclosure language for drafting and SEC-comment anticipation. Securitization counsel and compliance teams pull the base prospectus sections from the sequence-1 SF-3 / SF-3/A document and compare risk factors, reps-and-warranties, asset-representations-reviewer provisions, dispute-resolution mechanics, and CEO certification language across peer depositors. Diffing initial SF-3 filings against their SF-3/A amendments on the same 333- file number surfaces the specific paragraphs that moved through staff comment cycles.

• Building a structured Reg AB exhibit inventory per shelf. Iterate documentFormatFiles[] and key on type values (EX-4.x indentures and series-supplement templates, EX-5 legality opinions, EX-8 tax opinions, EX-10.x servicing and sale-and-contribution agreements, EX-25 Form T-1, EX-33/EX-34/EX-35 servicer assessments and attestation reports, EX-36 CEO certifications, EX-FILING FEES). The resulting per-accession exhibit table supports trustee-coverage maps, servicer assessment tracking, and a clean base for parsing each indenture and PSA template.

• Extracting structured filing-fee data from Exhibit 107.1. Parse the EX-FILING FEES document on each post-2022 SF-3 / SF-3/A to capture Table 1 line items: registered class, aggregate offering amount, fee rate, carry-forward credits, and net fee due. This produces a time series of registered-shelf capacity by sponsor and asset class and quantifies how much existing registration is being rolled forward at each refresh.

• Tracking shelf refresh cycles and amendment cadence. Group records by depositor CIK and base 333- file number, order by filedAt, and classify each record as initial SF-3 versus SF-3/A. Time-to-effectiveness, count of amendments before effectiveness, and the Rule 415 three-year refresh interval become features for issuance-timing models, treasury planning at issuer IR teams, and policy-side analysis of SEC review intensity by asset class.

• Anchoring a multi-form ABS disclosure chain by CIK and issuing entity. Use the SF-3 record as the registration-layer root and join downstream Rule 424(h)/(b) takedown prospectuses, ABS-EE asset-level data, 10-D distribution reports, and ABS 10-K reports on issuing-entity CIK. This lets pool-performance analytics inherit the contractual context (waterfall, triggers, credit enhancement) defined in the base prospectus rather than treating each periodic filing in isolation.

• Training NLP models on a clean structured-finance corpus. Strip the SGML <DOCUMENT> wrapper from each HTML payload and use the type and sequence fields in metadata.json as section labels to train extractors for pool eligibility criteria, transaction-party rosters, waterfall mechanics, and risk-factor classification. Accession-keyed packaging and stable SF-3 / SF-3/A typing support reproducible diffing, retrieval, and event-study datasets.

Dataset Access

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-sf3-files.json

This endpoint returns the dataset metadata, including name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date, total records and total size, covered form types (SF-3 and SF-3/A), container format (ZIP), and file types (HTML, JSON). It also includes the full dataset download URL and the list of all individual containers with per-container size, record count, updated timestamp, and download URL. Poll this endpoint to detect which containers changed in the most recent refresh and download only the updated ones. No API key is required to call this endpoint.

          1
          {
        

          2
            "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-69aa-a8bf-81004c7c51e6",
        

          3
            "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-sf3-files.zip",
        

          4
            "name": "Form SF-3 Files Dataset",
        

          5
            "description": "Form SF-3 is a registration statement used under the Securities Act of 1933 for shelf offerings of asset-backed securities, as defined in Regulation AB...",
        

          6
            "updatedAt": "2026-04-15T12:08:24.901Z",
        

          7
            "earliestSampleDate": "2015-06-01",
        

          8
            "totalRecords": 4111,
        

          9
            "totalSize": 291224445,
        

          10
            "formTypes": ["SF-3", "SF-3/A"],
        

          11
            "containerFormat": "ZIP",
        

          12
            "fileTypes": ["HTML", "JSON"],
        

          13
            "containers": [
        

          14
              {
        

          15
                "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-sf3-files/2026/2026-03.zip",
        

          16
                "key": "2026/2026-03.zip",
        

          17
                "size": 13818783,
        

          18
                "records": 154,
        

          19
                "updatedAt": "2026-04-15T12:08:24.901Z"
        

          20
              }
        

          21
            ]
        

          22
          }
        

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-sf3-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Use this URL to download the complete dataset as a single ZIP archive covering all filings from the earliest sample date (2015-06-01) through the latest refresh. This endpoint requires an API key.

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-sf3-files/2026/2026-03.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Use a container URL from the dataset index to download a single monthly archive instead of the full dataset. This is the recommended pattern for incremental updates. This endpoint requires an API key.

Frequently Asked Questions

What forms does this dataset cover?

The dataset covers Form SF-3 (the initial shelf registration statement for asset-backed securities) and Form SF-3/A (its pre- or post-effective amendments) filed to EDGAR under the Securities Act of 1933. Both form types are governed by Regulation AB II and apply only to public, shelf-registered ABS offerings.

What does one record in this dataset represent?

One record is one accession-numbered EDGAR submission of either SF-3 or SF-3/A, materialized as a folder named with the 18-digit accession number (dashes removed). The folder contains a metadata.json manifest plus every HTML document from the original filing package — base prospectus, exhibits, opinions, and the EX-FILING FEES Exhibit 107.1 fee table — each preserved inside its EDGAR SGML <DOCUMENT> wrapper.

Who is required to file Form SF-3?

The registrant is the depositor — a bankruptcy-remote special-purpose subsidiary of the sponsor that transfers receivables to the issuing entity. To use SF-3, the depositor must satisfy Regulation AB II's registrant eligibility (timely Exchange Act reporting under Forms 10-D, 10-K, 8-K, ABS-EE during the prior 12 months) and four transaction-eligibility conditions, including the depositor CEO certification of asset-pool cash-flow adequacy, the asset representations reviewer, the repurchase-dispute resolution provision, and the investor communication mechanism. Depositors that fail eligibility must use Form SF-1 instead.

What time period does the dataset cover?

The earliest sample date is June 1, 2015 — the Regulation AB II compliance date that introduced Form SF-3 — and the dataset is refreshed forward through the present. There is no pre-2015 SF-3 history; the predecessor regime sits on Form S-3 and is not included here.

What file format is the dataset distributed in?

The dataset is distributed as a ZIP container holding HTML and JSON file types. The HTML files are the per-document filing payloads (each still wrapped in the EDGAR SGML <DOCUMENT>...</DOCUMENT> envelope), and the JSON file is the per-record metadata.json manifest that lists the filing header, the entity list, and the full document inventory. GRAPHIC images and the consolidated complete-submission .txt SGML wrapper are referenced in metadata but not materialized inside the archive.

How does this dataset differ from Form SF-1 and Form S-3 datasets?

Form SF-1 is the non-shelf counterpart for ABS issuers that fail shelf eligibility — it registers a single, fully-specified offering rather than a program of future takedowns and has no CEO certification gate. Form S-3 is the corporate shelf carved-out parent of SF-3 and covers debt and equity of operating companies, not ABS issued through bankruptcy-remote depositors. SF-3 is narrower than both: it is limited to Regulation AB ABS shelves and is gated by transaction- and registrant-level eligibility conditions specific to securitizations.

How is the SF-3 record related to the actual ABS deal?

The SF-3 base prospectus is programmatic and program-level, not deal-priced. The actual offering disclosure — final pool tape, tranche structure, pricing, named underwriters, per-class CUSIPs — appears in Rule 424(h) preliminary and Rule 424(b) final prospectus supplements that are filed under their own accession numbers as separate EDGAR submissions and are not part of this dataset. Asset-level performance data and periodic distribution reports for the issuing entity flow through Form ABS-EE and Form 10-D, which are likewise separate filings joined to the SF-3 by depositor CIK and issuing-entity CIK.