SEC Adopts Overhaul of Small Business Registration and Reporting Requirements

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted a series of rule and form amendments that will extend the benefits of small business issuer regulations to a greater number of companies and simplify and consolidate existing scaled disclosure and reporting requirements. Specifically, the amendments will:

• Replace category of “small business issuers” with an expanded class of “smaller reporting companies;”
• Integrate Regulation S-B’s substantive disclosure requirements into new scaled disclosure provisions of Regulations S-K and S-X, as appropriate;
• Eliminate Regulation S-B and its related SB forms; and
• Permit smaller reporting companies to elect to comply with scaled disclosure and reporting requirements of revised Regulations S-K and S-X.