The startup community is getting excited and antsy. The comment period on the SEC’s crowdfunding rules ended February 3. The speculation has begun – when will the rules be final? Could it be this summer?
My answer: Who knows!
But to help us make some guesses, I have put together the below table. The way I see it, we have two recent rule making projects from the SEC that provide us some guidance: the bad actor rules and the rules repealing the ban on general solicitation. Based on how long it took the SEC to issue the final rules in these two recent instances, I don’t think we are going to see final crowdfunding rules until late this year. My guess: December 2014 or even early next year.
(1) In the proposed rules, the SEC said that it was issuing them in light of comments received “and the magnitude of the change that the elimination of the prohibition against general solicitation represents to the Rule 506 market.”
Of course, I hope I am wrong and we see the final rules sooner.