SEC’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee Holds

At its July 21, 2026, meeting, the SEC’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee addressed initial public offerings (IPOs), building upon its discussion of this topic at its previous meeting on April 28, 2026. In his speech at the meeting, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins reiterated actions the Commission is taking to breathe life into the market for IPOs, including “re-calibrating disclosure requirements for smaller public companies, reconsidering reporting cadence, enhancing Form S-3 eligibility, revising the criteria to qualify as a well-known seasoned issuer, extending the ‘IPO on-ramp,’ and modernizing filer status categories.” Mr. Atkins then turned to the SEC’s recently proposed regulatory reform as a cornerstone of its agenda to increase small-business capital and encourage more companies to undertake IPOs. Specifically, he cited the following four proposals (all released in May 2026) as reflecting the above goals:

• The proposed rule that would amend interim reporting requirements to allow registrants to elect to file semiannual reports on a new Form 10-S instead of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.
• A pair of proposals that would overhaul the public-company reporting framework and reform registered offerings.
• The proposed rescission of the SEC’s March 2024 final rule on climate-related disclosures.

Also see the speeches at the meeting by SEC Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda.