Law Commons^™

The Internet Direct Public Offering: Establishing Trust In A Disintermediated Capital Market, Jason Trainor

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Whereas the process of financial intermediation was once human capital and relationship intensive, it is now heavily influenced by technological innovation and consumer demand, factors which have tended to disrupt the monopoly power of financial intermediaries. Technological innovation alone, however, is not sufficient to replace the institutions and actors that previously dominated the market for public offerings; rather, the concept of disintermediation by definition creates a vacuum that must be filled. Law firms and other intermediaries can create additional value for their clients by assuming some or all of the tasks currently apportioned to investment bankers in the public offering …