CFA Institute Chairs SEC Investor Advisory Committee
Kurt Schacht, CFA, managing director of the Standards and Financial Market Integrity division at CFA Institute, has been elected to serve as chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Investor Advisory Committee. “I am grateful for the opportunity to support the committee and continue the critical investor-focused work begun by previous chair Joseph Dear, whose efforts paved the way for an environment where investors’ interests come first,” said Schacht. “I am honored to lead the committee as we tackle an extensive range of issues to help make financial markets safer and better protect investor interests.”
The 21-member committee was established by the Dodd–Frank Act to advise and consult with the SEC on a range of issues, most notably initiatives to protect investor interests and promote investor confidence and integrity of the securities marketplace. The Dodd–Frank Act authorizes the committee to submit findings and recommendations for review and consideration by the SEC.
On 10 April, the Investor Advisory Committee voted unanimously to ask the SEC to strengthen its proposed crowdfunding rules. Recommendations to the SEC included the following:
- Adopt tighter restrictions on the amounts that investors can invest in crowdfunding
- Strengthen mechanisms for the enforcement of the investment limits
- Clarify and strengthen the obligations of crowdfunding intermediaries
- Take further steps to ensure that educational materials clearly convey the required information and are understood by investors
- Withdraw proposed definition of electronic delivery, which fails to ensure that investors actually receive the required disclosures and educational materials
- Require crowdfunfing offerings to be integrated with offerings in reliance on a separate exemption where needed to prevent evasions of regulatory requirements
Read our most recent blog post on crowdfunding for our take on the issue.
