Federal Government Shutdown and the SEC: What Registered Funds, including ETFs and Mutual Funds Need to Know

Who may be interested: Registered Investment Companies; Investment Advisers, Closed-End Funds

Quick Take: As of 12:01 a.m. on October 1, 2025, Congress was unable to pass a continuing resolution to fund U.S. federal government operations, which has led to a shutdown of “non-essential services” of the federal government until further action from Congress.

As a federal agency, the SEC’s plan for operating during a government shutdown is now in effect.

Specifically, the SEC’s Division of Investment Management (“IM”) issued a statement concerning its operations during the current shutdown. Registrants can continue to make filings on EDGAR. Registration statement filings that are automatically effective upon filing (e.g., Securities Act of 1933 Rule 485(b) annual update filings on Form N-1A) or will become effective automatically after the passage of a regulatory specified periods of time (e.g., Securities Act of 1933 Rule 485(a) filings for material changes to existing registrants’ registration statements or to create new series of existing registrants) will become effective as provided under applicable SEC rules. With respect to new registrant filings on Forms N-1A and N-2, for instance, IM staff will be unable to respond to a registrant’s request to accelerate its registration effective until the shutdown ends. The IM statement further notifies the public that IM staff will be unable to respond to questions about pending matters, process any EDGAR filings, provide interpretive advice, issue no-action letters or conduct any other routine activities. For emergencies, the statement also provides an emergency hotline and email to contact IM staff.

The SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets (“TM”) also issued a statement concerning its exchange listing rule operations during the current shutdown. While TM’s Electronic Form Filing System (EFFS) for stock exchange and other self-regulatory organizations proposed rule changes will remain operational, TM presently does not have any regular “business days” while the government is shut down for purposes of Section 19 and Rule 19b-4 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Therefore, a new listing application or an amended application process will not proceed until the business day after the shutdown ends. This means that a new exchange-traded product that is unable to use an existing generic listing rule will not be able to commence trading during this period. New ETFs relying on 40 Act Rule 6c-11 can avail themselves of existing generic listing rules that are generally self-executing and do not require further SEC action. Thus, new ETFs relying on generic listing rules can commence trading during this time period.