Countdown to August 22

August 22's meeting of the SEC is almost upon us. And the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) supposes what the Commission will do at that meeting.

Fears what the Commission will do.

NASAA suspects the SEC may release interim rules to implement the changes to Rule 506 of Regulation D mandated by the JOBS Act.

NASAA doesn't want to see interim rules on Wednesday. It wants the JOBS Act to take a back seat to the process of writing rules for Dodd-Frank. And it wants a cost-benefit analysis of any new 506 rules. And when there are to be rules, it instead wants proposed rules that don't shape behavior in the same way interim rules would.

The Sunshine Act notice for the meeting lists three items of business. Two concern Dodd-Frank. The one item pertaining to the JOBS Act reads like this:

"The Commission will consider rules to eliminate the prohibition against general solicitation and general advertising in securities offerings conducted pursuant to Rule 506 of Regulation D under the Securities Act and Rule 144A under the Securities Act, as mandated by Section 201(a) of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act."

NASAA's letter touches on "the scope of ancillary services and compensation that are permissible for unregistered platforms," but that would implicate Section 201(b) of the JOBS Act, not Section 201(a).

But maybe NASAA knows better what will go down.

Update 10:15 AM Pacific: See this NYTimes editorial which appears to say that NASAA will have its way:

"In recent weeks, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been under pressure from Congress to rush ahead with regulations to put the law into effect, without first issuing proposed rules and seeking public comment. A rushed process would deprive investor advocates of the chance to weigh in on how to carry out the law while still protecting individual investors from fraud.

"On Friday, however, the S.E.C. chairwoman, Mary Schapiro, confirmed that the agency would not ram new rules through without public comment. . . ."

Many thanks to the person who sent me this link.

Photo: "Herbert George Ponting and telephoto apparatus, Antarctica, January 1912," National Library of New Zealand / Flickr.