FCAA - Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority | October 7, 2013

We ask for your input about the General Order 42-925 Saskatchewan Equity Crowdfunding Exemption and its associated documents from October 7, 2013 to November 6, 2013.

Maintaining an open dialogue with all stakeholders and the public is important to our goal of promoting strong investor protection while fostering confidence in Saskatchewan’s capital markets.

Thank you in advance for your comments.

How to Respond

You can mail or email comments as Word documents or PDFs to:

About the Saskatchewan Equity Crowdfunding Exemption

You may have heard of crowdfunding as a way for small businesses or creative projects to raise funds online from the public. Traditional crowdfunding usually raises money through donations or the pre-selling of products.

Equity crowdfunding is slightly different in that instead of giving a donation or pre-purchasing a product, individuals are investing in a company, product, or service. Businesses sell securities like shares, limited partnership units and promissory notes – investors buy a stake in a small business or start-up.

The current rules for selling securities like shares, limited partnership units and promissory notes are believed to be expensive, complicated and time consuming for small businesses or start-ups.

We believe the Saskatchewan Equity Crowdfunding Exemption will help small businesses and start-ups raise money, while still protecting investors by, among other things, limiting the amount of money individual investors can lose. FCAA also believes this is a unique opportunity for people who are new to investing to gain some experience.

The exemption is designed to allow a business to raise a defined amount of money in an efficient and cost effective way. The exemption will also limit the amount individuals can invest in the offering, which should limit the potential loss to individual investors if the offering is not successful.

Highlights

• Businesses will be able to make two, six-month offerings of $150,000 each during a year.
• The business cannot be a reporting issuer or an investment fund and cannot offer derivative type securities.
• Businesses must give FCAA notice of their intention to issue an offering 10 business days before posting online.
• The business cannot charge investors a commission or other amounts.
• Both the business and the investor must be located in Saskatchewan
• The business must report their sales to FCAA within 30 days of the offering’s close.
• No person may invest more than $1,500 in an offering.
• There are no fees payable to the FCAA for the offering.

The following documents are published for comment:

• General Order 45-925 Saskatchewan Equity Crowdfunding Exemption
• Issuer Information Form GO45-925F1
• Individual Information Form GO45-925F2
• Offering Document GO45-925F3
• Report of Trades Form GO45-925F4
• Portal Information Form GO 45-925F5
• Portal Individual Information Form GO45-925F6

A guide for issuers, investors and portals will be published for comment shortly.

Download: Consultation Document - Sask Equity Crowdfunding Exemption.pdf

Source: FCAA