As we noted, last month FINRA's Board of Governors authorized FINRA to issue an interim form to seek essential information from prospective funding portals intending to apply for membership with FINRA pursuant to the JOBS Act. FINRA has now announced the availability of the Interim Form for Funding Portals ("IFFP"), which is an online form for prospective intermediaries that intend to apply for membership with FINRA as funding portals. FINRA is inviting prospective funding portals to complete the IFFP voluntarily until FINRA and the SEC adopt final rules implementing Title III of the JOBS Act and establishing the registration procedures for funding portals.
Until the SEC and FINRA rules are adopted, FINRA will use the information collected with the IFFP to become more familiar with the proposed business models, activities and operations of funding portals. Once the final crowdfunding rules are adopted, additional information will be required of funding portals seeking to actually register with FINRA and the SEC. The information now requested in the IFFP includes:
- contact and general information about the funding portal;
- ownership and funding information about the prospective funding portal;
- information about the prospective funding portal's management; and
- information about the funding portal's business relationships, business model and compensation.
FINRA will treat information submitted using the IFFP as confidential.
The IFFP is available at: http://www.finra.org/Industry/Issues/Crowdfunding/
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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