On June 23, 2025, the House of Representatives (the “House”) passed seven bills relating to capital formation. As discussed in a previous post, these bills were reported to the House by the House Committee on Financial...more
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) published its 2025 FINRA Annual Regulatory Oversight Report (the “Report”), which builds on the structure and content of FINRA’s prior reports for 2021-2024. This...more
2/25/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Automated Clearing House (ACH) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cybersecurity ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Fraud ,
Information Technology ,
Innovative Technology ,
Investment ,
Investment Firms ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Risk Management ,
Third-Party Risk
The Staff of the Division of Corporation Finance posted questions and answers regarding the confidential submission process for draft registration statements.
...more
Not long ago, the SEC hosted the Annual Small Business Forum. The Forum provides an opportunity to consider a broad array of issues affecting private companies as well as smaller public companies seeking to raise capital and...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced an upcoming meeting of its Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee on May 6, 2024. The meeting will include a discussion of Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) and...more
4/29/2024
/ Advisory Committee ,
Capital Formation ,
Crowdfunding ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Investment ,
Public Meetings ,
Regulation CF ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Small Business ,
Startups
On March 5, 2024, the House will consider capital formation related legislation, H.R. 2799. This was originally introduced in April 2023 and reported out in July 2023. It is comprised of 19 separate bills. The House...more
As we previously posted, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee met last week to consider changes to the accredited investor definition, which has become a political hot...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently published its report on the Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation, which generates recommendations from participants that the SEC considers. The...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Investor Advocate held the 42nd Annual Small Business Forum—this time convening panels over four days on various topics, including trends and challenges affecting early...more
5/2/2023
/ Accredited Investors ,
Capital Formation ,
Capital Raising ,
Early Stage Companies ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Investment Funds ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Popular ,
Private Funds ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Small Business ,
Startups
Speaking at a conference at Columbia University as part of the Columbia Law and Business Schools’ Program in the Law and Economics of Capital Markets, Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Uyeda shared his views...more
3/7/2023
/ Business Development ,
Capital Formation ,
Corporate Governance ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
SEC Commissioner ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Small Business ,
Startups
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation issued on December 16, 2022 its 2022 Annual Report to the U.S. Congress and to the SEC detailing how entrepreneurs,...more
Here’s the deal: -
Filing the registration statement is a crucial part of an initial public offering (“IPO”), and during the filing period the company must engage with the SEC Staff and respond to its comments with...more
This practice note examines some of the issues most commonly raised in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff comment letters on registration statements filed for initial public offerings. It is intended to guide you,...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation recently delivered its annual report for FY2020 to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs of the US Senate and...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced that its Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting on January 29, 2021. The meeting will be held by videoconference, and open to...more
As we had previously blogged, the Securities and Exchange Commission will hold its Small Business Forum on June 18, 2020, virtually. While the annual program always addresses critical capital formation issues, this year’s...more
Recent events have negatively impacted fintech funding. CB Insights recently published data comparing fintech financing activity in the first quarter 2020 compared to the same quarter in prior years. ...more
CBInsights recently published its report on financial services corporate venture capital (CVC) activity. Globally, financial services CVC groups participated in $7.4 billion of funding in 2018 in 315 deals, with 2019...more
The Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation published its annual report to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs of the U.S. Senate and the Committee on Financial Services of the US House of...more
12/24/2019
/ Accredited Investors ,
Annual Reports ,
Capital Formation ,
Capital Markets ,
Crowdfunding ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Investors ,
Offerings ,
Pooled Investment Vehicles ,
Regulation A ,
Regulation CF ,
Rule 504 ,
Rule 506 Offerings ,
Securities Regulation ,
Small Business ,
Smaller Reporting Companies
The SEC’s amendment to the test-the-waters provisions, extending the ability to test-the-waters to issuers that are not emerging growth companies (“EGCs”), is now effective. The guide summarizes the provisions of new Rule...more
12/12/2019
/ Accredited Investors ,
Business Development Companies ,
Capital Markets ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Institutional Investors ,
New Rules ,
Qualified Institutional Buyers ,
Registered Investment Companies (RICs) ,
Rule 163B ,
Securities Act ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Testing-the-Waters Communications
The Securities and Exchange Commission released the report from the August 2019 Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation. The Annual Forum provides an opportunity for market participants to meet and...more
12/9/2019
/ Accredited Investors ,
Capital Formation ,
Crowdfunding ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Investment Company Act of 1940 ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Market Participants ,
Natural Person Requirement ,
Offerings ,
Qualification Standards ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Small Business ,
Smaller Reporting Companies ,
Sophisticated User Doctrine ,
Startups ,
Threshold Requirements ,
Tier 2 Offerings ,
Transfer Agents
CBInsights recently published its Global Fintech Report for the third quarter of 2019. For 2019, global fintech funding totaled $24.6 billion through the third quarter of 2019, which is still a decline from 2018. Global...more
In this Lexis Practice Advisor Practice Note, we discuss new Rule 163B adopted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On September 26, 2019, the SEC extended the ability to test the waters to all issuers by...more
11/20/2019
/ Accredited Investors ,
Corporate Issuers ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Institutional Investors ,
JOBS Act ,
New Rules ,
Public Offerings ,
Qualified Institutional Buyers ,
Rule 163B ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Testing-the-Waters Communications
On September 26, 2019, the US Securities and Exchange Commission extended the ability to test the waters to all issuers by adopting the highly anticipated new Rule 163B under the Securities Act of 1933 (the Securities Act)....more
9/30/2019
/ Accredited Investors ,
Corporate Issuers ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Gun-Jumping ,
Internal Communications ,
Investors ,
JOBS Act ,
New Rules ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Qualified Institutional Buyers ,
Rule 163B ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
A recent research piece published by UBS Financial Services discusses the significant variations in IPO winners and losers. The report notes that after five years about 60% of all IPOs had negative returns. ...more