Bloomberg reports that there is some interest on a bipartisan basis in a Jobs 3.0 bill that would include provisions:
...intended to help companies bring in more capital through initial public offerings and certain investors.
The legislation, for example, would enlarge the group of “accredited investors” who can take part in some unregistered securities offerings, ease startup fundraising involving “angel investors,” and allow all corporations — not just emerging-growth companies — greater freedom to talk to investors and “test the waters” about their potential IPOs.
But there's some stuff missing (granted some of these would be more controversial political):
- Securities fraud reform.Our expansive securities anti-fraud legal regime poses serious risks to the competitiveness of our markets. Noting that virtually all states now allow corporations to adopt charter provisions limiting director and officer liability and observing that corporate law properly consists of a set of default rules the parties generally should be free to amend, I have proposed allowing corporations to adopt provisions in their articles of incorporation to opt out of derivative litigation and/or securities class actions.
- Shifting to a more flexible principles-based securities law system from the current rules-based one.
- Comprehensively reviewing the governance provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank to determine whether there are some that are imposing undue burdens.
See generally Bainbridge, Stephen Mark, Corporate Governance and U.S. Capital Market Competitiveness (October 22, 2010). UCLA School of Law, Law-Econ Research Paper No. 10-13. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1696303
