The Securities and Exchange Commission just announced that it has taken steps to speed up the approval process for new exchange-traded funds.

Don't get too excited - nothing has actually changed yet. But the commission has voted unanimously to propose rules that would - among other things - allow ETFs to launch without getting exemptive relief from the SEC, as they must do now.

The rules, proposed under the Investment Company Act, are entering a 60-day comment period that is the next step in the approval process.

Rule 6c-11 would codify exemptions needed by index-based ETFs and by fully transparent actively managed ETFs so that the exemptive relief would not have to be sought by each fund provider for each fund. This change would accelerate the process for ETFs greatly.

However, according to an article from Dow Jones Newswires, it would not apply to ETFs structured as unit investment trusts or to actively managed ETFs that do not reveal their holdings on a daily basis. Currently there are no actively managed ETFs, fully transparent or otherwise, trading on U.S. exchanges yet.

A second change, proposed Rule 12d1-4, would be more sweeping in its effectiveness.

That proposal seeks to ease restrictions on how much investment companies can invest in other investment companies.

Currently, an investment company is able to own up to 3% of another investment company's shares. This means that mutual funds could invest in ETFs more freely, and the rule could affect such funds still in registration like State Street Global Advisors' recently filed actively managed target date ETFs that will hold other ETFs. There's no word on how much the restriction would be eased though.

Finally, proposed amendments to disclosure Form N-1A would adapt it to ETF investors trading the funds on the secondary market, which is generally how they are traded, in order to provide them with more information. The form was originally designed for mutual fund investors who buy directly from the fund company or an agent of the fund company.

"The proposed rules would increase investor choice by eliminating a barrier to entry for new participants in this fast-growing market, while preserving investor protections," said Andrew J. Donohue, director of the SEC's division of Investment Management, adding that the changes would also allow SEC staff more time to work on "more novel and difficult requests."

Presumably, in speeding things up for ETFs, the entire SEC machinery will run more smoothly.