Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) January 31, 2013

FINRA’s information request brings optimism to the crowdfunding industry’s leading trade organizations CFIRA and CfPA.

At the World Economic Forum 2013 in Davos, Switzerland, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R., N.C.) talks with Neil Lipschultz at Davos about “Crowdfunding” and the future of the JOBS Act, aimed to help small and emerging businesses attract financing.

Rep. Patrick McHenry on Crowdfunding and the JOBS Act in WEF Davos, Switzerland

Kim Wales writes about the regulatory decisions looming for the JOBS Act and how instead of imposing heavy regulations that are likely to confuse the U.S. states and EU nations states; government should look at criteria for Intermediaries such as operational and financial transparency, security of information and payments, platform functionality and customer protection.

Read the article in the Cayman Financial Review Magazine

On January 25, 2013 Goldman Sachs and LaGuardia College hosted its 7th, 10,000 Small Businesses Funders Panel and invited Kim Wales, the founder of Wales Capital, a thought leader in Crowdfund Investing as a panelist.

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses is a five-year initiative to unlock the growth and job creation potential of 10,000 small businesses across the United States through greater access to business education, financial capital, and business support services. The initiative is currently active in New York City, the greater Los Angeles area, the greater New Orleans area, and Houston, and will expand to communities across the country.

Objectives

10,000 Small Businesses is designed to help firms grow and create jobs. Small businesses play a vital role in creating jobs and growth in America’s economy and during the past 40 years, small businesses have created two-thirds of the net new jobs in the country. According to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and other research, these businesses are essential assets for the communities in which they operate.

Eligible Small Businesses

The program is designed for underserved small businesses which have the potential to grow. Broad characteristics of qualifying business owners include, but are not limited to: business revenues between $150,000 to $4 million in the most recent fiscal year; in operation for at least two years; at least four full-time employees; operations in economically disadvantaged areas; and a business model that can scale to create more jobs NYC Business Express. An online source, NYC.gov/BusinessExpress, takes the edge off of obtaining licenses, permits and certifi cations. At this continually updated website, entrepreneurs can fi nd step-by-step instructions for meeting all of those pesky government requirements. — Phyllis Furman

For more information,  Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses

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By ROBB MANDELBAUM

When the Jobs Act became law in April, supporters proclaimed a new era for small businesses seeking to raise money.

The “game changer,” as President Obama put it in the Rose Garden as he signed the bill, was a provision to let small companies “crowdfund” — that is, sell stock and other securities over the Internet directly to the public. “For the first time,” the president said, “ordinary Americans will be able to go online and invest in entrepreneurs that they believe in.”

But it now seems that dawn will break late on this new age of democratic investing. The Securities and Exchange Commission appears certain to miss its end-of-year deadline for issuing regulations to put the provision into effect. And with the departure of the S.E.C. chairwoman, Mary L. Schapiro, and three of her top deputies — including two who manage the offices writing the regulations — some in the nascent equity crowdfunding industry worry that it could be 2014 before their line of business becomes legal.

The delay has frustrated many crowdfunding backers. The 270 days that Congress gave the S.E.C. to write the rules “is not a suggested timeline; it is a Congressional mandate,” said Kim Wales, an organizer at Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates, a lobbying group formed in April to represent the new industry, in an e-mailed statement. “The S.E.C. answers to Congress, not the other way around.”

Read more…
 
Originally published in the New York Times on December 27, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/business/smallbusiness/why-the-sec-is-likely-to-miss-its-deadline-to-write-crowdfunding-rules.html