The results of the U.S. presidential election have left many people wondering about the impact that President-elect Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress will have on the U.S. capital markets. What regulatory changes should startups and other smaller issuers, as well as advisers to private equity funds, expect to see in the foreseeable future, now that the election is over?
It is widely anticipated that the Trump administration will have a deregulatory focus as evidenced in part by the selection of Paul Atkins, a conservative former Securities and Exchange Commission member, to head the president-elect’s transition team for the Securities and Exchange Commission and other independent financial regulatory agencies. During his campaign, candidate Trump also stated that he would dismantle or substantially revamp the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which when enacted affected just about every part of the U.S. financial services industry, including the offer and sale of securities exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and the regulation of advisers to private equity funds.
