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August 22, 2012 at 05:35 AM
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced before its open meeting on Wednesday that it is holding off on further action toward a rule on private-offering promotion under the JOBS Act until its Aug. 29 meeting.
SEC spokesman John Nester told AdvisorOne in an e-mail message that the commission “will consider whether to propose” the rule for comment at that time.
After repeated complaints, SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro (left) had decided to back away from issuing the rule on Wednesday and instead put the rule out for public comment. The agency was barraged with complaints from groups like the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) and Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) for circumventing its traditional practice of putting rules out for comment before issuing them.
The rule in question would allow general solicitation and general advertising in securities offerings conducted under Rule 506 of Regulation D under the Securities Act and Rule 144A under the Securities Act, as mandated by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, which was signed into law in April and is intended to ease capital raising for small businesses and startups.
Rule 506 allows certain private placements to be sold to investors without SEC registration. “By definition, these are limited investment offerings that are highly illiquid, generally lack transparency and have little regulatory oversight,” NASAA President Jack Herstein wrote in a blog for AdvisorOne.
