Today, FINRA issued three Regulatory Notices requesting comments on proposed changes to various rules relating to financing transactions.

Regulatory Notice 17-14 requests comment on all of FINRA's existing rules, operations and administrative processes that address the capital-raising activities of its member firms, including recent additions regarding capital acquisition brokers and funding portals.

Regulatory Notice 17-15 requests comment on proposed amendments to modernize, simplify and clarify FINRA Rule 5110, the Corporate Financing Rule, which affects all public offerings.

Regulatory Notice 17-16 clarifies the application of FINRA's research rules to desk commentary by sales and trading and principal trading personnel and solicits comments on a proposal to create a limited safe harbor for eligible desk commentary that may rise to the level of a research report.

Comments on the Notices are requested by May 30, 2017.  See:  http://www.finra.org/newsroom/2017/finra-requests-comment-rules-impacting-capital-formation

Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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