The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed increasing maximum limits for certain exempt offerings, a move that will come as welcome news to the leaders of emerging companies and startups, as well as more seasoned issuers, who have found that the low current limits made these funding options impractical.

The increases are included in a list of proposed rule changes the SEC announced on March 4 designed to "harmonize, simplify and improve the exempt offering framework to promote capital formation and expand investment opportunities while preserving and enhancing important investor protections."

The regulations also cover a variety of other topics including communications, crowdfunding and Regulation A eligibility and the integration framework.

Here are the details of the proposed offering limit increases:

For Regulation A:

• Raise the maximum offering amount under Tier 2 of Regulation A from $50 million to $75 million
• Raise the maximum offering amount for secondary sales under Tier 2 of Regulation A from $15 million to $22.5 million

For Regulation Crowdfunding:

• Raise the offering limit in Regulation Crowdfunding from $1.07 million to $5 million

For Rule 504 of Regulation D:

• Raise the maximum offering amount from $5 million to $10 million

Read the full text of the SEC's announcement.

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