ASA Sends Letter on SEC’s 44th Annual Small Business Forum

WASHINGTON – The American Securities Association (ASA) today sent a letter outlining its capital formation policy recommendations ahead of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) 44th Annual Small Business Forum. 

“ASA appreciates the SEC for once again holding this forum to solicit ideas to right-size regulation and get out of the way of small businesses trying to raise capital and increase opportunities for investors,” said ASA President and CEO Chris Iacovella. 

In the letter, ASA urged the SEC and Congress to use a 2017 Treasury Department report on improving the U.S. capital markets as a basis for any of the reforms it is considering, including but not limited to:

·   Tailor regulations for emerging growth companies and small public companies;

·   Improve research coverage for pre-IPO and small public companies;

·   Improve secondary market trading for EGCs and small reporting companies by allowing for intelligent tick-sizes;

·   Ending MIFID II’s negative impact on research coverage of U.S. public companies;

·   Terminate the Global Research Settlement which has decreased research coverage and created an unequal playing field for over twenty years;

·   Prioritize research rules reforms including differentiated distribution timing, clarifying the definition of a research report, reassess restrictions on owning covered names in managed accounts, and transition from quarterly Reg AC attestations to annual attestations to reduce administrative burdens on analysts; and

·   Protect shareholders against the burdensome costs of political activism.

To read ASA’s full letter, including its further detailed policy recommendations, click here.

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The American Securities Association (ASA) represents the retail and institutional capital markets interests of regional financial services firms who provide Main Street businesses with access to capital and advise hardworking Americans how to create and preserve wealth. ASA’s mission is to promote trust and confidence among investors, facilitate capital formation, and support efficient and competitively balanced capital markets. This mission advances financial independence, stimulates job creation, and increases prosperity. The ASA has a geographically diverse membership of almost one hundred members that spans the Heartland, Southwest, Southeast, Atlantic, and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States.