On October 18th, the SEC voted to propose amendments to establish an expedited review procedure for applications under the Investment Company Act of 1940. These particular applications must be substantially identical to recent precedent. This is in addition to proposing a new informal procedure for applications that would not qualify for this expedited process. The changes are intended to make the application process more efficient as well as to provide additional certainty and transparency to the process. The SEC also intends that the staff of the Division of Investment Management will also begin publicly disseminating comments on applications and responses to those comments.