Senate passed 3606 yesterday Thursday 73-26. This bill had 6 House of Representative bills combined. It was just approved by the House March 8th and moved rapidly through Senate. No one was sure it would pass so fast but it now appears to have "legs" with momentum gaining with widespread support.
The bill now returns to the House for vote again and we hear it will happen Tuesday. It is now expected to pass with bi-partisan support with the amendment and for Obama to sign it quickly there after to allow it to become law.
The 3606 bill included the crowd funding bill by Senator McHenry, the 500 rule amendment on company ownership to now allow 1000 owners, Regulation A that allows you to test the waters through marketing if a business plan has legs but now you can do Reg A for up to $50 million instead of the previous $5 million. One of the most significant changes is the Regulation D non-solicitation removal which allows companies and entrepreneurs to advertise their need for capital against equity ownership online and via TV, radio and other medium. We can expect media to explode with company advertising offering equity ownership to investors. Senator Merkeley D-Co and Senator Bennet D-Ne amendment was approved yesterday. It outlines the need for e 'intermediaries' aka broker-dealers which was part of Mary Shapiro's SEC letter to the Senate last week. Their amendment also outlines that you can only invest 5% of your revenue if you earn less than $100,000 per year versus the $10,000 max you can invest in the previous bill.
The house will now vote on 3606 and the amendment as early as Tuesday.
Stay tuned, this will be a new frontier!
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Michael Fugler, NIBA Advisory Committee Chairman
Jim Twaddell, NIBA Educational Committee Chairman
