U.S. Capital Raising In The Spotlight

The competitiveness of capital markets in the United States and the impact of regulations on capital raising activities by emerging companies have been put in the spotlight again by recent correspondence between Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Mary Schapiro, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The wide-ranging inquiry from Chairman Issa elicited a thoughtful response from Chairman Schapiro, which carefully reviews the SEC's regulation of communications around initial public offerings and the viability of various private capital raising activities (including the growth of secondary markets for private company securities), as well as the broader economic and other factors behind a reduction in the number of public companies and initial public offerings in the United States. Chairman Schapiro outlined a number of new SEC initiatives in her response, including SEC staff review of