WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Small Business Investor Alliance (SBIA), the leading association for lower middle market private equity funds and investors, took its concerns on duplicative regulatory burdens to Capitol Hill this afternoon. William H. Spell, President of Spell Capital Partners, LLC, testified on behalf of the SBIA membership before the U.S. Senate Banking Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investments.
Mr. Spell’s testimony endorsed the SBIC Advisers Relief Act; a bipartisan bill introduced in the last Congress in both Houses (H.R.4200/S.2765) and reintroduced in the House on January 21 as H.R.432. This legislation would make a number of corrections to Dodd-Frank that would maintain investor protections while reducing compliance burdens. For example, currently there is an exemption for venture funds and SBIC funds; but, if an investor qualifies for both exemptions, instead of being exempt they lose both exemptions. Another example is SBIC funds are currently exempt because they are already federally regulated, but if an adviser invests a single dollar outside the SBIC, double regulation is triggered. These are the types of issues that are easily fixed and appeal to the common sense of policymakers.
“Spell Capital is focused on helping small businesses grow, and providing them the capital and management help with which to accomplish that goal. Unfortunately, some of the regulatory burdens we face, notably the cost and burden of registration with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), which duplicates many of the costs and time burdens of complying with the SBA regulations in the SBIC program, have diminished both the time and funds we can spend engaged in providing capital and management expertise to small businesses.”
The SBIC Advisory Relief Act would let capital that is already federally regulated be exempt from additional and redundant regulation. For example, exempting SBIC capital from the SEC registration calculation would “save us immense compliance- and time-based costs that will allow our team to focus on what we do best – investing in innovative small companies in the manufacturing center, which often do not have much access to capital,” said Mr. Spell.
President of Minneapolis, MN-based Spell Capital Partners, LLC, Mr. Spell is an established manager of private equity and mezzanine capital with an extensive background in private equity, buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, raising capital, and business management. Prior to Spell Capital, he was Vice President and Director of Corporate Finance at a regional investment-banking firm in Minneapolis from 1981-1988. Since 1988, Mr. Spell has invested as a principal.
Mr. Spell was one of four panelists testifying on “Capital Formation and Reducing Small Business Burdens before the Senate Banking Subcommittee. The other panelists included Thomas Quaadman, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Marcus Stanley, Americans for Financial Reform; and John C. Partigan, Nixon Peabody.
About the Small Business Investor Alliance (SBIA)
The Small
Business Investor Alliance (SBIA) is the premier organization of lower
middle market private equity funds and investors. SBIA works on behalf
of its members as a tireless advocate for policies that promote
competitive markets and robust domestic investment for growing small
businesses. SBIA has been playing a pivotal role in promoting the growth
and vitality of the private equity industry for over 50 years. For more
information, visit www.SBIA.org
or call 202-628-5055.
