The first step in figuring out if a financial company is too big to fail, is to figure what it means to be “big”. Section 113 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act authorizes the Financial Stability Oversight Council to determine that a nonbank financial company will be subject to supervision by … Read more »
How Popular is Regulation D Fund Raising?
With the passage of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, it makes sense to look at the regulations around capital formation and see how they affect the ability of companies to raise capital and how they chose to do so. Of course larger economic effects may outsize the influence of the choices. The SEC’s … Read more »
Compliance and Patriots’ Day
And the shot heard ’round the world Was the start of the Revolution. The Minute Men were ready, on the move. Take your powder, and take your gun. Report to General Washington. – Schoolhouse Rock! Patriots’ Day honors the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the Revolutionary War. That … Read more »
More Private Fund Advisers Register than SEC Expected
From the great sources at IA Watch: The numbers may not be final, but they’re close. Some 1,400 private fund advisers registered with the SEC by the first week of April, sources tell IA Watch. Owing for some stragglers, these appear to be what Dodd-Frank wrought by way of new advisers. They join some 2,600 … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for April 13
These are some recent compliance-related stories that caught my attention. The Skyscraper Index from Barclays Capital (via Barry Ritholz’s The Big Picture) Our Skyscraper Index continues to show an unhealthy correlation between construction of the next world’s tallest building and an impending financial crisis:New York 1930; Chicago 1974; Kuala Lumpar 1997 and Dubai 2010. Yet … Read more »
Why The Law Is So Perverse
In Why the Law Is So Perverse, Leo Katz, Frank Carano Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, examines features of the legal system which seem to not make sense on some level. I admit that I offered to read and review the book based on the title. I’m not sure that … Read more »
SEC Seeks Public Comment Prior to Jobs Act Rulemaking
In an unusual move, the SEC has opened up for comments on the proposed rules under the recently-signed Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, before it has proposed the rules. The SEC is generally required by law to establish a public comment period at the time it proposes rules or rule amendments. However, similar to the … Read more »
Will Private Funds Be Excluded?
Title II of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act directs the SEC to lift the ban on general solicitation and advertising under Rule 506 of Regulation D. That rule creates a safe harbor that deems the covered transactions to not involve any public offering within the meaning of section 4(2) of the Securities Act. However, … Read more »
Smells Like Insider Trading
Apparently Blue Horseshoe loved Zhongpin Inc., a China-based pork processor whose shares trade in the U.S. The SEC jumped on the accounts of six Chinese citizens and a British Virgin Islands entity. (Apparently the Chinese prefer to use British Virgin Islands entities. It’s the second largest investor in China after Hong Kong.) The facts stink … Read more »
Which Real Estate Fund Managers Registered with the SEC?
Last year, I looked a the top 30 real estate private equity fund managers to see which were registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Given that we just passed the March 30, 2012 registration deadline, I thought I would update the list. (Disclosure: my company is on the list.) 1 The Blackstone Group Already … Read more »