The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Wed, 26 Aug 2026 13:15:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.10 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png FAST Act: Capital Formation Changes and Reduced Disclosure Burdens – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 FAST Act: Capital Formation Changes and Reduced Disclosure Burdens https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2015/12/29/fast-act-capital-formation-changes-and-reduced-disclosure-burdens/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fast-act-capital-formation-changes-and-reduced-disclosure-burdens https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2015/12/29/fast-act-capital-formation-changes-and-reduced-disclosure-burdens/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2015 14:41:39 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=72145?d=20230208131957EST Posted by Stacy Kanter, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, on Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Editor's Note:

Stacy J. Kanter is co-head of the global Corporate Finance practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. This post is based on a Skadden alert by Ms. Kanter, David J. Goldschmidt, Michael J. Zeidel, and Brian V. Breheny.

On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), which, despite its name, contains several new provisions designed to facilitate capital formation and reduce disclosure burdens imposed on companies under the federal securities laws. The provisions build upon the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act), which created a new category of issuers called “emerging growth companies” (EGCs) [1] and sought to encourage EGCs to go public in the United States. [2] The FAST Act provisions, which were first introduced in a package of bills often called “JOBS Act 2.0,” are the culmination of a continuing congressional effort to increase initial public offerings (IPOs) by EGCs, reduce the burdens on smaller companies seeking to conduct registered offerings and provide trading liquidity for securities of private companies.

While some of the new provisions require rulemaking by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before they are effective, other provisions of the FAST Act amend the Securities Act itself and therefore are effective, with an immediate effect on current offerings.

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