While any relief still has a long (and uncertain) path before it would be effective, on October 26, 2011, the House Financial Services Committee approved four bills (with bipartisan support) that would remove regulatory federal securities law obstacles to capital formation.
H.R. 1965 would, for banks and bank holding companies, raise the SEC registration threshold to 2,000 shareholders and the deregistration threshold to 1,200 shareholders.
H.R. 2167, the “Private Company Flexibility and Growth Act,” would raise the SEC registration threshold for all companies to 1,000 shareholders and would exclude accredited investors and certain employees from the definition of “held of record” for registration purposes.
H.R. 2940, the “Access to Capital for Job Creators Act,” would permit general solicitation and general advertising for private offerings conducted under Rule 506, so long as all purchasers were accredited investors.
Lyn Schroeder’s legal advice to a South Carolina bank seeking to go private was featured yesterday in the Fulton County Daily Report’s Deal Watch blog.
We believe that Powell Goldstein has assisted more financial institutions deregister from the SEC than any other law firm in the last four years. We have prepared a comprehensive presentation on how and why community banks are electing to go or stay private.