Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act is Passed by House Committee

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The House Financial Services Committee passed H.R. 3818, the Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act, introduced by Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA), Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises. The Committee passed H.R. 3818 by a vote of 67-1.

The press release summarizes the bill as “Everyone Registers. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” But the text of the bill appears to still have an exclusion from registration for venture capital firms.

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Capital Markets Regulatory Reform: Enhancing Oversight of Private Pools of Capital

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Today, the House Committee on Financial Services heard testimony on Enhancing Oversight of Private Pools of Capital. This seems to be is response to the draft Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act. Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA), Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, released a discussion draft of the bill.

This was likely to be a battle over who gets regulated. Congressman Kanjorski opened that door by including a registration exemption for “Venture Capital” funds, with no definition of what that means.

Panel Two—Enhancing Oversight of Private Pools of Capital

Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski emphasized that the committee wanted to works with the industry to impose regulations that would not burden the industry with lots of compliance costs.  His audience of fellow Congressmen was limited. There were more empty seats than Congressmen.

The panelists emphasized that the full burden of the Investment Advisers Act would inhibit the private fund industry. They also pointed out that many of the types of private pools of capital (other than hedge funds) do not have systemic risk and were not part of the cause of the financial industry issues.

The hearing did include a battle over whether there should be registration and who should be registered. “We only deal with sophisticated investors, we think we should be treated differently than retail investments.”