July 28, 2014,  New York, NY

By: Kim Wales

The central bank has drawn up new rules for Ireland, one of the biggest hubs for funds in Europe to allow hedge funds based in the country to lend to companies. The regulations  the central bank has drawn will allow specialized loan funds that it authorizes to extend loans internationally.

Lending to households and corporations have been sluggish since the 2008 financial crisis by European banks whom see to continue to increase the requirements to qualify.  Firms who are too small to issue bonds are increasingly seeking to borrow from other sources such as insurers, private equity firms and hedge funds.

Traditionally, Ireland prevented hedge funds domiciled in the country from lending because regulators viewed it as too risky. However, access to credit a growing problem in Europe and across the globe.

Under the rules, a loan fund will not be able to lend more than a quarter of its assets to one borrower and the amount of debt the fund can take on will be capped at a ratio of 1 to 1, meaning that if a fund has assets of 100 million euros it can borrow another 100 million euros.

The central bank issued a consultation paper on the rules on Monday and expects them to be in place by the end of the year.

“In our view this is a sector that should be subject to some additional regulation,” said Martin Moloney, head of markets policy at the Irish central bank.

“If you have loan origination funds operating out of Ireland and lending into other countries there are potential cross border issues. We wanted to deal with that upfront and we have been very focused on the financial stability issues.

The move by the Irish central bank comes as the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are trying to resurrect the European Union’s market for asset-backed securities as a way of getting credit flowing to smaller businesses and plug some of the gap left by banks.

New York, NY — May 2014

A new asset class and a new investor class is being creating through securities based crowdfunding. Re-regulating and democratizing the global capital markets is necessary given the world economy continues to drag along at a snails pace after six long years of recession.

Read the full article on TABB Forum.

5/24/2014

Kim Wales and Scott Purcell, industry leaders in securities based crowd funding and Board Members of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CFIRA) recently posted a comment letter on the SEC web site regarding JOBS Act implementation. The comment letter was in direct response to the recommendations provided by the Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) who recently met – reviewing their requests for JOBS Act implementation. CFIRA is a group of industry advocates and participants that have consistently championed the benefits of investment crowdfunding. The IAC is a committee established under the Dodd-Frank Act to advise the SEC.

This specific letter, co-signed by CFIRA board members Scott Purcell and Kim Wales, challenged several of the requests by the IAC – an entity that has not been known for their support of crowd funding.

5/24/2014
The World Economic Forum, is a global outreach and is in collaboration with Stanford University, E&Y and Endeavor, surveyed over 1,000 entrepreneurs from around the globe with the goal of better understanding how successful entrepreneurial companies accelerate access to new markets and become scalable, high-growth businesses. Ushering entrepreneurs through an eco-friendly infrastructure should aid in the success of companies globally.

Read the full report here:

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Around the Globe and Company Growth Dynamics

Washington, DC (PRWEB) June 03, 2013

The White House hosted Kim Wales, Founder of Wales Capital and Board Member of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CFIRA) along with other distinguished crowdfunding industry thought leaders for the Champion of Change Ceremony on June 4th recognizing entrepreneurs using crowdfunding to fuel growth.

» Full news story

Oxford Valuation Partners, Crowd Valley and KPMG featured experts, Kim Wales, founder of Wales Capital, Douglas Ellenoff, senior attorney with the firm Ellenoff, Grossman & Schole, Nicolas Hodge, Partner at K&L Gates, Alejandro Cremades, founder of RockThePost, Vamsi Sistla, CTO of CrowdValley and an Angel Investor with the ARC Angel Fund and Daniel Miller, Co-Founder of Fundrise, who are at the cutting edge of this new field, Crowdfund investments. Together they discussed and debated the landscape of funding options and how quickly it changing. Driven by new SEC no-action letters and changes stemming from the JOBS Act that is permitting a broader scope of activity in the space outside of the traditional networks.  The current focus seems to be on platforms that link Accredited Investors and investment opportunities, while more retail options are being developed since the final rulemaking process for Title III remains underway.

http://crowdfunding-university-baruch-newyork-57.eventbrite.com/

White, who became SEC chairman on April 10, 2013, has suggested the commission pass the existing plan without major changes and add additional protections later, said the people, who declined to be identified because the deliberations are private. The approach would placate congressional Republicans who have complained the SEC has slow-walked the rule, which was required to be completed by July 2012.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-26/sec-s-white-said-to-push-to-lift-ban-on-hedge-fund-advertising.html

Google led a $125 million deal to buy a stake in the Lending Club from existing investors valuing Lending Club at $1.55 billion – nearly triple the valuation of the last fund-raising round that closed last summer. This is a defining moment for the crowdfund investing industry; if you are not aware, it is this new alternative asset class that is positioned to democratize the capital markets under the Jumpstart Our Business Startup Act.

Click here to read the full WSJ article:  http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/05/02/google-makes-strategic-investment-in-lending-club/

April 18, 2013 – Crowdfund investment pioneers speak at the NYC Angel and Crowdfund Investing Conference.

On December 14, 2012, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) published the OSC Staff Consultation Paper 45-710 Considerations for New Capital Raising Prospectus Exemptions. The Consultation Paper sets out four concept ideas for new prospectus exemptions in Ontario, together with a number of specific consultation questions. The concept ideas are: a concept for an exemption to allow crowdfunding subject to limits for issuers and retail investors, a concept for an offering memorandum exemption, a concept for an exemption based on an investor’s investment knowledge, and a concept for an exemption based on an investor receiving advice from a registrant.

Wales Capital participated in a forum along with other industry thought leaders such as Crowdfund Capital Advisors, SomoLend, Arctic Island, GATE Technologies, Nehemiah Investments, and Ellenoff Grossman & Schole, LLP.

Subsequently, Wales Capital provided comment letters to the OSC for consideration as related to a). Investment Size; b). Oversubscription; c). Two Business Day “cooling period”; d). Revenue Models; e). Rescission Period (Withdrawal Rights).

Read Comment Letters Here