Taken from Forbes
In a move many watchers find promising, the SEC today approved a proposed plan from Congress for the rules to define equity crowdfunding in the U.S., a long-awaited outcome of the bipartisan JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act that was enacted last year.
The proposal now remains open for comment for the next 90 days (and possibly longer, due to its complexity), to be followed by another meeting of the SEC for final approval, followed by an additional 60 days within the Federal Registry before the formal enactment. This means that by the most optimistic interpretations we may see formalized crowdfund investing in the U.S. by early Summer of 2014.
Crowdfund expert Dr. Richard Swart, Director of Research for the Program for Innovation in Entrepreneurial and Social Finance, U.C. Berkeley, sees today’s proceedings as good news.
While the proposed plan is 592 pages (nearly double the length of most full length books) and poses 295 questions the SEC wants comments upon, Swart’s opinion is that the plan reflects the commission’s desire to make debt and equity Crowdfunding viable in the U.S.
“Under the leadership of commission chair Mary Jo White, the SEC has decided to support Congress’s intent by crafting a framework to enable a meaningful equity Crowdfunding market in the United States,” he said.
According to Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA) principal and co-founder Jason Best,“The bottom line in all of this is the importance of education for both investors and entrepreneurs.” To that end, CCA has created an educational resource called Success With Crowdfunding for entrepreneurs and investors to use. Swart notes several interesting takeaways from the proposed rules, as follows:
