Politics, Legal & Regulation

October 27, 2014 @ 8:00 am By Samuel Guzik  |  

  The place: Washington, D.C. – the occasion: the swearing in of a new federal agency head – one charged in part with regulating the flow of capital to small businesses.  President Obama and others listened with a hopeful ear. Her words were inspiring, especially… Read More

October 24, 2014 @ 6:03 pm By Anthony Zeoli  |  

Well it’s official. At long last my proposed Illinois intrastate crowdfunding exemption has been formally drafted as a proposed bill. It may be without a sponsor at the moment but one step at a time…. For those that are interested in reading the full proposed… Read More

October 22, 2014 @ 4:34 pm By JD Alois  |  

Texas is the latest state to join a growing list of states that have legalized investment crowdfunding within its borders. As was widely expected, the Texas State Securities Board approved rules today that now allow the  residents of Texas to invest in businesses seeking capital… Read More

October 20, 2014 @ 2:00 pm By Masai McDougall  |  

In March of 2014, the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation enabling small businesses to participate in intrastate crowdfunding. The Maryland Securities Commissioner released its final rules for compliance with the exemption on October 1, 2014, making intrastate crowdfunding in Maryland fully legal. There are two… Read More

October 19, 2014 @ 11:20 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission not only spends a lot of time creating rules they also hit the streets and enforce them.  Monolithic and ill thought out legislation such as Dodd-Frank create an almost never ending list of new rules adding complexity and inertia to… Read More

October 18, 2014 @ 5:12 pm By JD Alois  |  

The French investment crowdfunding platform Sowefund, launched in September 2014, has been approved to operate a crowdfunding platform under the French statute designating the Conseiller en Investissements Participatifs (CIP) by ORIAS. The new French regulations providing rules for crowdfunding were introduced earlier in 2014 and… Read More

October 18, 2014 @ 4:33 pm By JD Alois  |  

First State to Create Secondary Market for Privately Crowdfunded Securities. Tired of waiting on federal regulators to implement investment (aka equity) crowdfunding for all investors, several Midwestern states, including Michigan, have legalized intrastate investment crowdfunding. Now, with the pending passage of HB 5273, Michigan’s effort… Read More

October 17, 2014 @ 4:45 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has earlier announced that it will hold its annual Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation at its Washington, D.C. headquarters on November 20, 2014.  As part of the annual gathering the morning session will tackle the definition of… Read More

October 17, 2014 @ 12:43 pm By JD Alois  |  

The United Kingdom government has announced a new consultation seeking input from peer to peer industry participants or views from any other individuals or business as they look to create the most efficient method of including peer to peer loans within Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs)…. Read More

October 13, 2014 @ 3:12 pm By JD Alois  |  

Last week the Investor Advisory Committee met at the Securities and Exchange Commission to review and make recommendations on several issues regarding investors.  At the top of the list was the hot polemic on how an accredited investor should be defined. As it stands today… Read More

October 13, 2014 @ 1:45 pm By JD Alois  |  

The European Crowdfunding Network (ECN) announced they were holding their annual convention in Paris earlier this year but the crowdfunding advocate group has recently shared additional details on the forthcoming event. The ECN is a professional network promoting adequate transparency, (self) regulation and governance while… Read More

October 10, 2014 @ 11:22 am By Anthony Zeoli  |  

The Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) met yesterday to vote on the approval of its recommendations to the SEC for reforming the current definition of “accredited investor.” Most of the recommendations of the IAC call for changes to the… Read More

October 10, 2014 @ 8:58 am By JD Alois  |  

Paul Niederer and his investment crowdfunding platform, The Australian Small Scale Offerings Board (ASSOB), started doing equity crowdfunding before the term was even coined.  The entire global crowdfunding industry has looked towards Australia for their experience garnered from years of actual practice.  ASSOB has raised… Read More

October 9, 2014 @ 1:26 pm By JD Alois  |  

Shire Leasing, a company that provides lease finance to small businesses, has received an £80 million boost from an investment by the British Business Bank and the private sector.  This is part of a wider UK government policy to make it easier to setup and… Read More

October 7, 2014 @ 8:10 am By Anthony Zeoli  |  

In a prior post “SEC Releases New Guidance On Intrastate Offerings,” I briefly reviewed Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (“CDIs”)  numbers 141.03, 141.04 and 141.05 released by the SEC in April relating to securities offerings made pursuant to Rule 147 and Section 3(a)(11) of the Securities… Read More

October 7, 2014 @ 4:00 am By Gonçalo de Vasconcelos  |  

Innovate Finance is a British not-for-profit membership organisation. With the vision of being the voice of the finance sector in Britain, from the Fintech agile startup to the largest financial corporations, and which aims to accelerate technology-led transformation in the finance sector. Innovate Finance’s recent… Read More

October 6, 2014 @ 10:04 am By JD Alois  |  

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has told the Aussie parliament that rewards based crowdfunding campaigns, like those listed on Pozible, Kickstarter and Indiegogo, may be required to pony up taxes on rewards purchased by campaign backers.  This is a question that has surfaced not only… Read More

October 5, 2014 @ 11:46 pm By JD Alois  |  

Peer to Peer Lender Funding Circle Leads Claims Largest Deal for 2014. According to a report from London & Partners, tech in London is booming and setting record levels of investment.  So far for 2014 technology firms have captured over $1 billion in aggregate investment…. Read More

October 3, 2014 @ 4:03 pm By Jason Futko  |  

  Cambridge House held its Canadian Investor Conference event in Toronto, Ontario on 26 September 2014. The event was geared toward investors by bringing top thought leaders and companies who are interested in accessing investors.  BoardSuite Founder, CEO Oscar A Jofre was invited to participate… Read More

October 3, 2014 @ 12:09 pm By JD Alois  |  

Ron Miller, CEO and founder of StartEngine, launched a personal campaign to push the SEC forward with final rules on Title III of the JOBS Act, retail crowdfunding.  His own comment letter published on the SEC site was posted on July 25th, 2014.  Since that… Read More