Crowdfunding Hotly Anticipated
(December 14) Crowdfunding advocates and entrepreneurs continue to eagerly monitor the progress of regulators at FINRA, as it develops interim rules to allow the advertisement and sale of equity securities online.
“Funding portals” as authorized under the JOBS Act signed in April remain illegal until regulation is complete. The most optimistic projection for having rules in place is summer of 2013. In the meantime, a lot of noise. Various blossoming entities like CFIRA (CrowdFund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates) complain about the delay and press for an accelerated timeline. A small army of start-ups claim to have found legal crowdfunding business models using debt funding, donations, or state-level regulatory workarounds. And the state regulators in NASAA (North American Securities Administrators Association) are preparing for an explosion of fraudulent offerings and a long line of burned investors next summer.
(St. Louis Business Journal at http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/)