H.R. 2930, introduced by Rep. Patrick McHenry, permits “crowdfunding” to finance new businesses by allowing companies to accept and pool donations up to $5 million without registering with the SEC. Crowdfunding is an innovative and lower-risk form of financing that enables several individuals to pool money to in a particular company. SEC regulations prohibiting general solicitation have acted as a barrier to crowdfunding developing and flourishing in the United States. The bill was approved by the Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee on a vote of 18 to 14. Rep. McH... Read More »
The legislation, introduced by Rep. Stephen Fincher, expands the exemptions available to small companies from certain costly reporting requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Since 2007 the SEC has exempted small companies with a market capitalization of less than $75 million. Market participants have repeatedly said the current SEC exemption provides no benefit since the threshold is too low. The bill was approved by the Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee on October 5th. The vote on final passage was 18 to 14. Upon Subcommittee passage of the bill, Rep. Fincher ... Read More »
Outside Washington, D.C., there is growing concern about the regulatory burden imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act and the harmful effect it will have on jobs. Cynthia Richards, New Mexico’s Financial Institutions Division director, tells the Albuquerque Journal that the Dodd-Frank Act is “onerous,” “costly,” “confusing,” and “difficult to implement.” “When we see this act fully implemented we’re going to see across the nation the effect on competitiveness and the profound effect on the economy, and not for the good.” Richards explains the Dodd-Frank Act “is largely to protect banks that are too big... Read More »
Today’s American Banker includes a dead-on piece about how the Dodd-Frank Act, with its 2,300 pages and more than 400 regulations, is “regulatory overkill” with unintended consequences that hurt consumers and the economy. “It's a fool's mission for our government to try to micro-manage our financial system — and for all the lip-service paid to balancing regulation and markets, that's precisely what Dodd-Frank purports to do.” The Banker article notes the Dodd-Frank Act will result in higher consumer costs, fewer and bigger banks, fewer mortgages, and tighter credit. Although promoted by its su... Read More »
The Washington Post reports today on another failure of one of the Obama Administration’s foreclosure mitigation programs. In an article headlined “HUD program to help struggling homeowners falling short,” the Post notes this is “the latest in a series of efforts that has left funds allocated by Congress unspent and has failed to help as many” borrowers as promised. The Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program, which the Post in an earlier article described as a $1 billion “give away” program, is estimated by the Obama Administration to lose 98 cents for every one dollar it spends because of the pro... Read More »
NOTE: Today, the Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Committee held a legislative hearing on H.R. 2940, and four additional proposals, aimed at promoting small business capital formation by removing government roadblocks. By Rep. Kevin McCarthy Special to Roll Call Sept. 21, 2011, Midnight Twenty-six years ago, I started a small business: a deli I creatively named “Kevin O’s.” At 20 years old, I had limited culinary skills and lived in a time that predated the Food Network. In short, I was pretty much making new sandwiches as I went along. Fortunately for me, there were enough... Read More »
Tomorrow, the Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee will hold a hearing on five proposals designed to help small businesses access the capital markets for the financing they need to grow their companies and hire more workers. This hearing continues the Full Committee’s ongoing efforts to promote small business capital formation and job creation. One of the bills on tomorrow’s agenda is H.R. 2167, the Private Company Flexibility and Growth Act. The bill has been introduced by Rep. David Schweikert. Witnesses scheduled to testify before the Subcommittee are praising t... Read More »
With a growing regulatory burden weighing our economy down, President Obama’s executive order #13563 issued in January was welcomed news. That executive order requires government agencies to conduct cost-benefit analyses to ensure that the benefits of any rulemaking outweigh the costs. It also requires that both new and existing regulations be accessible, consistent, written in plain language and easy to understand. Unfortunately, this executive order does not apply to agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). And according to the SEC, the Dodd-Frank Act alone contains more t... Read More »
Associated Press: Congressional panel investigates Ga. bank failures Published: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Georgia holds the dubious distinction as the epicenter of bank failures in the aftermath of the Great Recession. But lawmakers who gathered at a congressional hearing Tuesday to investigate the causes questioned whether some of the shuttered banks were victims of overzealous regulations and strained relations with examiners. Georgia has suffered 67 bank failures since 2008, far more than any other state. Many of those banks collapsed due to lax lending practices that left them laden with ba... Read More »
