Tagged: perspective

April 15, 2015 @ 7:32 am By Richard Swart  |  

    I recently published a report with Mary Milner addressing how crowdfunding models can be used to address global challenges across multi-national networks.   What is fascinating is how rapidly the nature of conversations about crowdfunding is changing among top policy makers, corporate leaders and… Read More

April 14, 2015 @ 9:00 am By Ron Suber  |  

In the world of finance, the traditional banking industry is the big celestial body at the center of things. Circling that orbit are the spheres of money transfer, payments, wealth management, banking and marketplace lending (also called peer-to-peer finance). Disruption to financial services has been… Read More

April 14, 2015 @ 7:00 am By JD Alois  |  

The UK has become one of the hottest markets for FinTech startups in the world. In fact the George Osborne has made the FinTech industry a tentpole in his policy initiatives. At the Innovate Finance launch last year the Chancellor declared “I want the UK to… Read More

April 13, 2015 @ 8:00 am By Bill Ullman  |  

  Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants…” Former US Supreme Court Judge Louis Brandeis The old guard is trying to define marketplace lending as part of a murky “shadow banking” industry.  Banking analyst Richard Bove concluded in a recent Rafferty Capital Markets… Read More

April 10, 2015 @ 5:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Alphaworks, the crowdfunding offshoot of innovation factory betaworks, recently published a series of postings on Regulation A+: How it came to be and what they anticipate it to become going forward. Broken up into three different segments, the first part reviewed the origin and history surrounding… Read More

April 10, 2015 @ 12:29 am By JD Alois  |  

Jamie Dimon is probably the most respected banking CEO on Wall Street today. And he should be.  He was the guy that really didn’t need the bail-out money but took one for the team when asked to do it by the Secretary of the Treasury…. Read More

April 9, 2015 @ 1:08 pm By Gil Michel-Garcia  |  

Regulators, particularly securities regulators, are normally a conservative and risk averse lot, generally preferring fraud prevention to economic efficiency.  However sometimes they can come up with some brilliant pieces of economically empowering regulation, particularly when pushed by the political powers that be and when faced… Read More

April 8, 2015 @ 12:01 am By Brad McGee  |  

After the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued its final rules for the new Regulation A (Reg A+), many in the media heralded the changes as the dawn of a new financial paradigm: investment crowdfunding.  Companies we work with wondered if Reg A+ was the… Read More

April 1, 2015 @ 11:33 am By Josh Kalish  |  

By now, the startup world has heard the news. Finance blogs are ablaze, and twitter feeds are lighting up with word that capital just became a whole lot easier to access. Entrepreneurs from coast to coast are leaning back in their chairs, greedily steepling their… Read More

March 30, 2015 @ 1:12 pm By Samuel Guzik  |  

Having just read SEC Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher’s remarks at Vanderbilt Law School last Friday,  he may not be the only champion of smart regulation for small business capital formation.  But he is surely one of the most visible and important voices in this area. … Read More

March 28, 2015 @ 6:47 am By JD Alois  |  

SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher gave a speech yesterday at the Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville. While the text of the speech is not yet available, Bloomberg has quoted  the Commissioner on Title III of the JOBS Act as being smothered by red-tape.  Effectively he is highlighting… Read More

March 27, 2015 @ 4:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

Fundrise, one of the first crowdfunding platforms in the United States, was an early innovator when it comes to real estate crowdfunding.  Founded by brothers Ben & Dan Miller, the pair started using old Regulation A to offer shares in small real estate deals. This… Read More

March 25, 2015 @ 1:20 pm By Kiran Lingam  |  

In a stunning development earlier today, the SEC released final Regulation A+ rules under Title IV of the JOBS Act that pre-empts state law for larger Regulation A offerings up to $50M and provides for state coordinated review for offerings up to $20M.  Growth companies… Read More

March 20, 2015 @ 2:39 pm By Anthony Zeoli  |  

Facebook has just announced the release of a new “P2P” payment feature incorporated in its messenger service. The application will allow users to send & receive money to each other using their platform. Facebook launched the service saying “it is easy, and it is free”.  The… Read More

March 13, 2015 @ 12:53 pm By Charles Kaufman and Jor Law  |  

This the second part, of a two part series, reviewing Bad Actors in private placements.  The first article may be viewed here. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued new Rule 506(d) in 2013, a rule that bars felons and other specified “bad actors” from… Read More

March 10, 2015 @ 12:09 pm By Dara Albright  |  

I spend many waking hours advocating for crowdfinance and preaching about the economic repercussions of an unjust financial system that inhibits entrepreneurs from procuring growth capital and restrains unaccredited investors from acquiring higher yielding private securities. I’ve dedicated more than four years to this endeavor… Read More

March 8, 2015 @ 10:42 pm By JD Alois  |  

Capitol Hill is an ever-revolving series of meetings, hearings and committees that too frequently get mired in petty political squabbles and posturing. Most of what occurs on the Hill these days is lost to much of the rest of the country who are simply too… Read More

March 7, 2015 @ 12:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a speech presented at the Stanford Law School, SEC Commissioner Kara Stein delivered a lecture clearly designed to cater to the audience. Entitled “Supporting Innovation Through the Commission’s Mission to Facilitate Capital Formation” the presentation noted that the SEC’s mission is not defined as supporting innovation… Read More

March 6, 2015 @ 9:02 am By JD Alois  |  

Steve Case, a staunch proponent of investment crowdfunding and advocate of access to capital for SMEs, called out billionaire pundit Mark Cuban on CNBC this morning. Ostensibly the discussion was on the Tech Bubble “Yes or No” polemic but discourse ended up being a bit… Read More

March 3, 2015 @ 1:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

SeedInvest, a widely respected investment crowdfunding platform that operates under Title II accredited crowdfunding (for now), has just submitted a comment letter to the Securities Exchange Commission pleading with the agency to “keep Title III crowdfunding simple”. The JOBS Act was signed into law almost… Read More