Companies looking to tap the capital markets have reason to rejoice. The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved changes to the Securities Act that should make that process faster, easier and less expensive.
The reforms mark major changes to regulations dating back to the 1930s; The Securities Act of 1933 was the first federal law to regulate the offering of securities to the public. The Act, which was one of more than a dozen major legislative initiatives enacted during the first 100 days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term, has been ostensibly unchanged in over 70 years. An attempt to reform the offering process in 1998, known as the “Aircraft Carrier” proposal, was considered too vast of an overhaul, and sank under its own weight.
