SEC Proposes To Ease Limits On Private Placements

The SEC proposed amendments to the Securities Act exemptive framework that would expand their availability and make it easier to raise money under those exemptions. The SEC would:

• raise permitted offering size thresholds for certain Regulation A offerings and for crowdfunding transactions;
• better codify and impose greater limits on the situations in which the SEC would "integrate" offerings, making it easier to effect a private placement without concern that the private placement would be deemed improper by virtue of the SEC deeming it to be part of another offering by the same issuer;
• permit the "testing of the waters" in connection with certain exempt offerings; and
• provide for an additional method of verifying a potential purchaser's status as an accredited investor under Rule 506(c) under the Securities Act.