Praxiserfahrungen mit den Befreiungsvorschriften des Kleinanlegerschutzgesetzes

This study investigates the effects of exemption provisions within the Small Investor Protection Act that was introduced in July 2015. By increasing the regulatory obligations for issuers, the Small Investor Protection Act should lead to a higher level of transparency for investors in the so called “grey capital market”. However, the act does include exemptions from certain regulatory obligations. Crowdinvesting-platforms, social, charitable and ecclesiastic projects are not obliged to publish a prospectus for the offering of an investment instrument. The investigation into the effects of these exemption rules is based on a crowdinvesting-database, a survey of social and charitable organizations and interviews with experts. In short, the effects of this act and its exemptions one year after its introduction are negligible for the market of crowdinvesting in Germany. Furthermore, the data analysed shows that investment behaviour has not changed as a result of obligations to self-disclose income and wealth on the part of investors. Investment instruments, however, have changed in the crowdinvesting market in recent years from silent partnerships to profit-participating-loans and subordinated loans. Social and charitable projects do not seem to be making use of the newly established exemptions due to the fact that there are other, and in most cases simpler, regulations that release them from the obligation to publish a prospectus.