SEC Staff Publishes Testimony on JOBS Act Implementation (with Lofchie Comment)

Lona Nallengara, Acting Director of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance, and John Ramsay, Acting Director of the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets, testified before a House committee on the SEC's progress in implementing the JOBS Act. The Congressional request for their testimony was likely an effort to hasten the SEC rulemaking required to implement the JOBS Act.

The written testimony provides a description of the major changes to the law made by the JOBS Act, and a further and more detailed description of each Title of the JOBS Act and the progress that the SEC has made in rulemaking relating to that Title.

The testimony did not provide any estimate of a date as to when the rules under Title II, allowing public marketing of private offerings, would be adopted.

Lofchie Comment: One suspects that Congress is blissfully unconcerned with the burdens it puts on either regulators or regulated entities when it makes major changes to the law. It's hard not to feel sympathetic to the SEC staff, who are also attempting to deal with the implementation of Dodd-Frank, relatively new issues such as algo trading, and all the usual issues, such as insider trading. While it should be easier to deregulate than to regulate, the SEC has to be feeling a bit cautious about the deregulation, particularly in light of the steady criticism of the JOBS Act from state securities regulators and their regular warnings that the JOBS Act is a license to defraud. See, e.g.,NASAA Sees Sharp Spike in Crowdfunding on the Internet; Task Force Monitoring Crowdfunding Activities for Increased Signs of Fraud.

Click here to view testimony (links externally to SEC website).For a compilation of related news items, link toCurrent Topics - JOBS Act. Click here to view theJOBS Act.