October 10, 2017

The Honorable Jeb Hensarling
Chairman, House Committee on Financial
Services
2228 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Maxine Waters
Ranking Member, House Committee on
Financial Services
2221 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters,

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA)1 writes in opposition to H.R. 477, the Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, Sales, and Brokerage Simplification Act of 2017.

As SIFMA has previously testified, the bill as currently drafted would expose small business owners and investors to unnecessary risks without any meaningful benefit from reduced regulatory compliance. Many of our member firms, particularly small and regional registered broker-dealers, have helped small businesses successfully navigate change of ownership transactions through their mergers and acquisition (M&A) practice. Registered broker-dealers are subject to a variety of regulatory requirements that non broker-dealer M&A advisors are not, and this provision risks promoting lower standards, less rigor, and an unlevel playing field in the provisioning of this important advice.

We urge the Committee to reject this bill.

Sincerely,

Andy Blocker
Executive Vice President
Public Policy & Advocacy

CC: The Honorable Bill Huizenga; The Honorable Brian Higgins

1 SIFMA is the voice of the U.S. securities industry. We represent the broker-dealers, banks and asset managers whose nearly 1 million employees provide access to the capital markets, raising over $2.5 trillion for businesses and municipalities in the U.S., serving clients with over $20 trillion in assets and managing more than $67 trillion in assets for individual and institutional clients including mutual funds and retirement plans. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA).