Possible changes to Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF), and further work to modernise the initial public offering (IPO) process, are on the table at the US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday, 27 October 2026. The SEC announced the meeting on 14 October 2026.
Members will meet in person at the SEC's headquarters, 100 F Street N.E., Washington, D.C., at 10:00 a.m., and proceedings are scheduled to end at 3:30 p.m. A live stream on SEC.gov lets those who can't attend join.
Making IPOs easier
The agenda places the morning discussion under the Commission's IPO Modernisation initiative, aiming to list more small companies. The discussion will cover three areas of possible reform: analyst research support, corporate communications around public listings, and rationalising the offering process.
The session follows a run of meetings on the same theme this year. At its April meeting, members took stock of a quieter IPO market and asked whether fewer listings were putting companies off going public. The July session turned to SEC rule proposals designed to make public markets less burdensome for issuers, and members reconvened on 6 August to work through policy recommendations.
Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF)
After lunch, the agenda turns to Reg CF, which has now been in place for ten years. Reg CF lets early-stage companies raise money from the public online through registered intermediaries. Members will consider whether policy changes could open the exemption to more young companies seeking capital, after taking a decade's view of it: what has worked, where it has fallen short, and how the rules stand today.
Three people from the crowdfunding industry are lined up to speak. Wefunder's Founder and CEO, Nicholas Tommarello, will be joined by Sherwood Neiss, a Principal at Crowdfund Capital Advisors, and by Brian Belley, who is Chief Technology Officer at Kingscrowd.
Preparing financial statements is costly for a Reg CF issuer, and in a letter dated 11 July 2024, the committee asked the SEC to ease the requirement. Its recommendation: lift the offering size above which reviewed financial statements become mandatory, from $124,000 to $350,000. Reg CF still accounted for only a small share of all capital raised under the securities laws.
Why it matters
The committee's role is advisory: it recommends to the SEC how rules and policy affect small businesses. It does not write rules itself, but its recommendations can feed into what the Commission proposes next. For issuers, crowdfunding portals, underwriters and their compliance advisers, the meeting is an early signal of where the SEC's capital formation agenda may go, alongside proposals such as Regulation Crypto Assets and the plan to scrap Rule 14a-8.
Read the full SEC press release and the meeting agenda.
