The Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) has adopted a policy objective to ask the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to “deliberately compare exemptions” and avoid a “disjointed patchwork of regulations.”
The new “Presumptive Parity” advocacy was distributed by the CfPA board of directors this week.
The CfPA advocates on behalf of online capital formation and the various securities exemptions that enable raising money online. In the past, the CfPA has been more focused on securities exemptions that allow for non-accredited investor participation, initially Reg CF (Regulation Crowdfunding). Reg A and Reg D 506(c) also allow online capital formation, with Reg A being more prescriptive, requiring an SEC-qualified offering document, and Reg D catering only to accredited investors.
The CfPA explains:
“When the SEC creates or materially changes an exempt capital-raising pathway, it should compare that pathway against similarly situated existing ones. Comparable capital raising opportunities and comparable regulatory burdens should be the starting point, unless a meaningful difference in one pathway justifies treating them differently. The burden of identifying that differe...