The SEC's Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee has scheduled a public meeting for Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at 10 a.m. Eastern, according to an SEC press release dated October 14. The session is intended to keep the committee's work on modernizing the initial public offering process moving and to look at possible changes to Regulation Crowdfunding.
The SEC release says the morning portion will address how the IPO process could be modernized, including potential regulatory reforms to the offering process, the rules governing communications around IPOs, and analyst coverage and support. The afternoon portion will review how Regulation Crowdfunding currently operates, what has worked, where difficulties have arisen, and whether changes could expand capital raising for early-stage companies. The SEC's meetings listing shows the same 10 a.m. start, and blockchain.news reported that a separate SEC notice dated September 25, 2026 scheduled the October 27 meeting.
The meeting is open to the public and will be held at SEC headquarters at 100 F Street, N.E., in Washington, D.C., with live streaming on SEC.gov. Blockchain.news described the committee as advisory rather than a rulemaking body, which means its discussions would inform any later SEC action but would not change rules on their own. The sources do not give a timetable for SEC rulemaking and do not say what recommendations the committee will reach.
The October session follows earlier work. Freewritings.law reported that the committee met on April 28, 2026, with a focus on encouraging more IPOs, and mondovisione.com reported that the committee met on July 21, 2026. Mondovisione.com reported, citing an SEC announcement, that the committee reconvened virtually on August 6, 2026, after its July 21 meeting. Crowdfund Insider reported that the committee's remit covers capital raising by emerging private companies and publicly traded companies with less than $250 million in public market capitalization. Crowdfund Insider reported that the committee was created by the Small Business Advocate Act of 2016.
Much of the backdrop is the Registered Offering Reform proposal, File No. S7-2026-17, which the Federal Register published on May 26, 2026, requesting comment. According to the SEC's press release, the proposal would extend shelf eligibility to a wider group of companies irrespective of their public float.
The proposal has drawn opposition from the North American Securities Administrators Association, or NASAA, the association of state securities regulators. NASAA filed a comment letter dated July 27, 2026, concerning File No. S7-2026-17. The sources available for this article do not describe the arguments in that letter, so this article does not attribute any position to it.
NASAA's August 6, 2026 letter for the record, sent to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, argues that the proposal would end state review of unlisted registered offerings. That letter says a proposed amendment to the definition of qualified purchaser would make registered offerings covered securities, ending state review of unlisted offerings that are registered. The letter lists affected products as non-traded business development companies and non-traded REITs. The letter urges Congress to scrutinize preemption proposals.
A separate NASAA comment letter, listed as published October 14, 2026, responds to a September 30, 2026 recommendation from the committee on the same proposal. The material available for this article does not describe that letter's contents. The sources also do not report how the committee itself views the proposal.
The sources give no date for final SEC action on the proposal or on the committee's recommendations. The October 27 session is the next scheduled step in the advisory process they describe.