SEC Chairman Schapiro Testifies on the Commission’s Progress in Implementing the JOBS Act

Yesterday Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro gave testimony before the U.S. House of Representative’s Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs Oversight and Government Reform Committee, updating the Committee on the Commission’s progress in implementing the JOBS Act and the staff’s new guidance regarding economic analysis in rulemaking.

Among other things, Chairman Schapiro noted that:

• the Commission expects to release the JOBS Act-mandated study on the impact of decimalization on the market for initial public offerings shortly;

• the staff is currently in the process of reviewing Regulation S-K and preparing recommendations on how it can be updated to modernize and simplify the registration process;

• the Commission will not meet the deadlines imposed for revising the general solicitation and general advertising requirements of Rules 506 and 144A, but it “will be in a position to act on a staff proposal in the very near future”; and

• approximately 50 bank holding companies have already deregistered under Exchange Act Section 12(g)’s amended registration threshold, which went into effect immediately upon the JOBS Act’s enactment (in an article unrelated to Chairman Schapiro’s testimony, SNL Financial noted, that as of the end of May, 61 bank holding companies had already begun the deregisteration process).