The Equity Crowdfunding Alliance of Canada (ECFA Canada) says it is pleased that last week the Ontario Securities Commission and the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba published for comment a proposed equity crowdfunding framework to make it easier for small and medium sized enterprises to raise capital in their respective jurisdictions. (See Investment Executive, Provinces choose different paths to equity crowdfunding, March 20, 2014.)
Equity crowdfunding involves the sale of securities on the internet to a large number of investors or the ‘crowd’.
The five provinces other than Ontario also published for comment a proposed start-up equity crowdfunding framework that is substantially the same as Saskatchewan’s existing start-up equity crowdfunding framework.
ECFA Canada says investors, entrepreneurs, dealers and equity portals now have clarity on a proposed equity crowdfunding framework for capital raising in Canada.
“Like any new proposed regulations, there are aspect that we agree with and those that we do not, however, overall, we at the ECFA Canada, see this as a big step forward,” ECFA Canada said in a release.
ECFA Canada says it will have more comments in the days ahead once its committee co-chairs have studied and digested the intricacies of all the proposed rules.