On March 23, 2018, Congress passed a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill titled the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, which included the Small Business Credit Availability Act. Included in the Small Business Credit Availability Act are various changes to the federal securities laws and regulations that impact business development companies (“BDCs”). Most significantly, the BDC-related portions of the legislation expand the ability of BDCs to utilize leverage and provide them with the ability to rely on more flexible SEC communication and offering rules currently only available to operating companies.
This chart summarizes the BDC-related provisions of the legislation.