IIB 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2919 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 10, 2019 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 

Urban Affairs 

AN ACT 

To require the Securities and Exchange Commission to carry 

out a study to evaluate the issues affecting the provision 

of and reliance upon investment research into small 

issuers. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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HR 2919 RFS

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving Investment 

3 Research for Small and Emerging Issuers Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. RESEARCH STUDY. 

5 (a) STUDY REQUIRED.—The Securities and Ex6 change Commission shall conduct a study to evaluate the 

7 issues affecting the provision of and reliance upon invest8 ment research into small issuers, including emerging 

9 growth companies and companies considering initial public 

10 offerings. 

11 (b) CONTENTS OF STUDY.—The study required 

12 under subsection (a) shall consider— 

13 (1) factors related to the demand for such re14 search by institutional and retail investors; 

15 (2) the availability of such research, includ16 ing— 

17 (A) the number and types of firms who 

18 provide such research; 

19 (B) the volume of such research over time; 

20 and 

21 (C) competition in the research market; 

22 (3) conflicts of interest relating to the produc23 tion and distribution of investment research; 

24 (4) the costs of such research; 


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1 (5) the impacts of different payment mecha2 nisms for investment research into small issuers, in3 cluding whether such research is paid for by— 

4 (A) hard-dollar payments from research 

5 clients; 

6 (B) payments directed from the client’s 

7 commission income (i.e., ‘‘soft dollars’’); or 

8 (C) payments from the issuer that is the 

9 subject of such research; 

10 (6) any unique challenges faced by minority11 owned, women-owned, and veteran-owned small 

12 issuers in obtaining research coverage; and 

13 (7) the impact on the availability of research 

14 coverage for small issuers due to— 

15 (A) investment adviser concentration and 

16 consolidation, including any potential impacts of 

17 fund-size on demand for investment research of 

18 small issuers; 

19 (B) broker and dealer concentration and 

20 consolidation, including any relationships be21 tween the size of the firm and allocation of re22 sources for investment research into small 

23 issuers; 

24 (C) Securities and Exchange Commission 

25 rules; 


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1 (D) registered national securities associa2 tion rules; 

3 (E) State and Federal liability concerns; 

4 (F) the settlement agreements referenced 

5 in Securities and Exchange Commission Litiga6 tion Release No. 18438 (i.e., the ‘‘Global Re7 search Analyst Settlement’’); and 

8 (G) Directive 2014/65/EU of the European 

9 Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 

10 on markets in financial instruments and 

11 amending Directive 2002/92/EC and Directive 

12 2011/61/EU, as implemented by the European 

13 Union (‘‘EU’’) member states (‘‘MiFID II’’). 

14 (c) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 180 days 

15 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Securities 

16 and Exchange Commission shall submit to Congress a re17 port that includes— 

18 (1) the results of the study required by sub19 section (a); and 

20 (2) recommendations to increase the demand 

21 for, volume of, and quality of investment research 

22 into small issuers, including emerging growth comVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Jul 10, 2019 Jkt 034408 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2919.RFS H2919

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1 panies and companies considering initial public of2 ferings. 

Passed the House of Representatives July 9, 2019. 

Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 

Clerk. 


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