The SEC announced that the next meeting of its Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies will take place on June 3, 2015. The meeting will focus on public company disclosure effectiveness, intrastate crowdfunding, venture exchanges and the treatment of "finders." The Advisory Committee also is expected to vote on a recommendation to the SEC regarding the "Section 4(a)(1½) exemption," which is used by shareholders to resell privately-issued securities privately. See: SEC Press Release.

The SEC's "Notice of Designation of a Longer Period for Commission Action" was published in the Federal Register. The notice concerns FINRA's proposal to adopt Rule 2241 regarding research analysts and reports. The proposal would incorporate, with modifications, NASD Rule 2711 ("Research Analysts and Research Reports") into the FINRA Rulebook as new FINRA Rule 2241, and would amend NASD Rule 1050 ("Registration of Research Analysts") to create an exception from the research analyst qualification requirement. Previously, the SEC issued an order to determine whether to approve or disapprove

The SEC's "Notice of Designation of a Longer Period for Commission Action on Proceedings to Determine Whether to Approve or Disapprove a Proposed Rule Change to Adopt FINRA Rule 2242" was published in the Federal Register. Rule 2242 would address conflicts of interest involving the publication and distribution of debt research reports. According to FINRA's proposal, the rule would adopt a tiered approach in order to provide retail debt research recipients with "extensive protections" that are similar to those provided to recipients of equity research under current and proposed FINRA rules. It

At the annual Capital Markets Credit Analysts Society dinner, President of the Center for Financial Stability Lawrence Goodman delivered remarks on future challenges facing global markets. Mr. Goodman explained how a series of "never before" challenges will impact markets. "Never before," he said, has there been such: large-scale intervention by central banks; growth in the financial regulator apparatus and in the labyrinth of rules governing markets; and distortion across a wide range of financial markets. Mr. Goodman sees "three potential pathways for the future": (i) a growth solution, (ii)

FINRA issued a regulatory notice requesting comments on a concept proposal to restructure the current representative-level qualification examination program. The new format would require a potential representative-level registrant to take general and appropriate specialized knowledge exams to reflect their particular registered role. The content of the general knowledge examination, which would be called the Securities Industry Essentials Examination ("SIE"), would include (i) basic product knowledge, (ii) the structure and functions of the securities industry markets and regulatory agencies