Stephen Deane, CFA, is Senior Director, Legislative and Regulatory Outreach, at CFA Institute. He joined CFA Institute after more than nine years at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where he was the first staff employee in the Office of the Investor Advocate. He helped build out the office and served as principal liaison to the Investor Advisory Committee. He previously worked at Institutional Shareholders Service (ISS) and in international development. He speaks fluent Russian and has a master’s degree in Russian studies from Harvard University.
One
of the most effective advocacy tools is to write comment letters on regulatory
proposals and then leverage those letters for blogs, conversations with
regulators, Hill staffers, and the media.
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Finders with the right contacts among investors can play useful roles in bridging funding gaps. Unfortunately, however, the world of finders also has a dark side of fraudsters, market manipulators, and bad actors. The SEC's proposed exemption fails to acknowledge this.
The SEC is proposing major changes to the rules governing private markets to help young companies raise capital and to expand retail investor access to private markets. CFA Institute argues that the proposal would weaken investor protections and tip the balance yet further against public markets.
The SEC has proposed to amend the accredited investor definition, which could open the door for eventual recognition of the CFA® charter as a qualifying designation allowing them to participate in private markets.