Private Markets Are Reserved for the Rich. Should a Test Let You in?
私人市场是富人的专属。应该有一个测试让你进入吗？

A group of lawmakers has proposed legislation that would allow any investor capable of passing an exam to buy private securities—an array of investments like shares in pre-IPO startups or loans to private companies that are considered riskier because they have looser disclosure rules than public securities and can be harder, and sometimes impossible, to sell in a pinch. 
一组立法者提出了一项立法，允许任何能够通过考试的投资者购买私人证券——这是一系列投资，如未上市初创公司的股份或对私人公司的贷款，这些投资被认为风险更高，因为它们的披露规则比公共证券更宽松，并且在紧急情况下可能更难，甚至有时不可能出售。

The idea is that the ability to make these high-risk, high-reward bets should be open to all sophisticated investors, not just those with the biggest bank accounts. It is a pitch that has lots of fans on Wall Street and many smaller advisory firms, where a movement is trying to get a bigger slice of everyday investors’ retirement funds and savings in private-equity funds and other nontraditional investments. 
这个想法是，进行这些高风险、高回报投资的能力应该向所有成熟投资者开放，而不仅仅是那些拥有最大银行账户的人。这一提议在华尔街有很多支持者，以及许多较小的顾问公司，在这些公司中，有一个运动试图获得更多普通投资者的退休基金和储蓄，以投资于私募股权基金和其他非传统投资。

“Investing your hard-earned money in startup businesses in your community shouldn’t be limited to the wealthy,” said Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.), the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee and who proposed the bill. 
“将您辛苦赚来的钱投资于您所在社区的初创企业不应仅限于富人，”参议员蒂姆·斯科特（南卡罗来纳州，R.）说，他是参议院银行委员会的排名成员，并提出了该法案。

Today, accredited investors need $1 million in net assets, not including their primary home residence, or at least $200,000 in yearly income, or $300,000 for a joint household. Most of the investors in private securities are big institutions, such as pension funds and university endowments, who have staff and know-how.
今天，合格投资者需要拥有 100 万美元的净资产，不包括其主要住宅，或者每年至少 20 万美元的收入，或者联合家庭的收入为 30 万美元。大多数私人证券的投资者是大型机构，如养老基金和大学捐赠基金，他们拥有专业人员和专业知识。

Investor-protection advocates say changing that rule would water down necessary safety guards for individual investors while lining the coffers of private companies and Wall Street firms. 
投资者保护倡导者表示，改变这一规则将削弱对个人投资者所需的安全保障，同时为私营公司和华尔街公司填充金库。

“Knowledge cannot protect people from the potential losses if they invest in risky, opaque, and illiquid, private offerings,” said Patrick Woodall, managing director for policy at Americans for Financial Reform, an organization that advocates for tougher financial regulation. “Only financial resources can.”
“知识无法保护人们免受投资于风险高、信息不透明和流动性差的私人投资所带来的潜在损失，”美国金融改革组织政策总监帕特里克·伍达尔说，该组织倡导更严格的金融监管。“只有财务资源才能做到这一点。”

The debate is over a booming section of Wall Street and a type of investment that earns Wall Street big fees. Firms have been racing to expand their offerings for everyday investors. But, there has been little change in how regulators think about access.
关于华尔街一个蓬勃发展的领域以及一种为华尔街带来丰厚费用的投资类型的辩论已经结束。各公司一直在争相扩大对普通投资者的产品供应。然而，监管机构对获取渠道的看法几乎没有变化。

The reigning definition of who could be an accredited investor was something dreamed up in the 1980s and the actual dollar levels haven’t changed dramatically.
当前对合格投资者的定义是 1980 年代提出的，实际的美元水平并没有发生显著变化。

The number of people who pass the income and wealth threshold has already soared in the past 40 years, thanks mostly to inflation. There were 24.3 million U.S. households, or about 18.5% of all households, who qualified in 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission estimated. In 1983, that had been just 1.5 million households, or 1.8%. 
在过去 40 年中，达到收入和财富门槛的人数已经大幅上升，这主要归功于通货膨胀。根据证券交易委员会的估计，2022 年有 2430 万美国家庭，约占所有家庭的 18.5%。而在 1983 年，这一数字仅为 150 万家庭，约占 1.8%。

Washington has already made some attempts to change the rules. 
华盛顿已经做出了一些尝试来改变规则。

In 2020, the SEC voted to expand access, allowing people with entry-level stockbroker’s licenses and “knowledgeable employees” of nonpublic firms to participate in private investments. A stockbroker has to pass a dreaded “Series 7” exam that takes nearly four hours.
在 2020 年，证券交易委员会投票决定扩大准入，允许持有初级股票经纪人执照和非公开公司的“知识员工”参与私人投资。股票经纪人必须通过一项令人畏惧的“系列 7”考试，该考试持续近四小时。

In 2023, the House of Representatives passed legislation that also endorsed putting the determination of “accredited” status to a standard test.
在 2023 年，众议院通过了一项立法，支持将“认证”状态的确定置于标准测试之下。

No one is quite sure yet how to build a broader test for the general populace.
目前还没有人确定如何为大众建立更广泛的测试。

Individuals who score high enough on an exam quizzing their financial acumen should be able to invest in private securities, Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee proposed last month. 
个人在考察其金融智慧的考试中得分足够高，应能够投资于私人证券，参议院银行委员会的共和党人上个月提议。

The new Scott-proposed bill would let the SEC or another regulator write an examination that would test “financial sophistication,” by quizzing individuals on such topics as the types of securities, disclosure requirements under securities laws, corporate governance, financial statements and the liquidity and leverage risks involved in these transactions.
新的斯科特提议的法案将允许证券交易委员会（SEC）或其他监管机构编写一项考试，以测试“金融素养”，通过对个人进行关于证券类型、证券法下的披露要求、公司治理、财务报表以及这些交易中涉及的流动性和杠杆风险等主题的问答。

How many questions? How will it stop cheaters? Do you need a sharpened No. 2 pencil? Those are all open-ended questions for the regulators. 
有多少个问题？它将如何阻止作弊者？你需要一支削尖的 2 号铅笔吗？这些都是监管机构的开放性问题。

A Senate aide said it shouldn’t be as easy as a driver’s learning permit test, but it also can’t be “impossible.”
一位参议院助手表示，这不应该像驾驶学习许可证测试那样简单，但也不能“不可能”。

The latest Senate bill is unlikely to pass unless the Republicans win more seats in the coming election. While those in favor of the bill say this is a popular position and they believe it will garner bipartisan support, the Republicans are in the minority right now.
最新的参议院法案不太可能通过，除非共和党在即将到来的选举中赢得更多席位。虽然支持该法案的人表示这是一个受欢迎的立场，并相信它将获得两党的支持，但共和党目前处于少数派。

Write to Corrie Driebusch at corrie.driebusch@wsj.com
写信给 Corrie Driebusch，邮箱地址为 corrie.driebusch@wsj.com