EMMA Enhancements Providing for Additional Voluntary Submissions by Issuers and Obligated Persons Effective May 23, 2011
Effective May 23, 2011, the MSRB enhanced the Electronic Municipal Market Access (“EMMA”) system by providing additional voluntary disclosure options for issuers and obligated persons. Issuers and their designated agents now have the ability to make available through EMMA preliminary official statements and other related pre-sale documents as well as official statements, advance refunding documents and related information.[1] Issuers, obligated persons and their designated agents now also have the ability to provide information related to the preparation and timing of submission of annual financial statements as well as provide hyperlinks to other financial disclosure information available on the internet. All disclosures voluntarily submitted will be made available on the EMMA web portal at emma.msrb.org and through EMMA subscription services.[2]
EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS AND EMMA SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION
MSRB hosted several educational webinars describing the additional voluntary disclosure options for issuers, obligated persons and their designated agents and demonstrating the process for making manual, web-based submissions to EMMA. The presentations from these webinars can be found below and also are available on the Online Education section of the News, Events and Training section of the MSRB web site.
- Overview of New EMMA Voluntary Disclosures
- Process for Making Submissions of New EMMA Voluntary Disclosures
MSRB has published documents detailing instructions for manual, web-based submissions and technical specifications for computer-to-computer submissions to EMMA for certain of the additional voluntary disclosure options for issuers and obligated persons. These documents are available on the EMMA Dataport page of the EMMA web site.[3]
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Questions about making the voluntary submissions described in this notice should be directed to the Market Information Help Desk at 703-797-6668. Questions regarding this notice may be directed to Justin Pica, Director, Uniform Practice Policy, at 703-797-6716.
May 23, 2011
[1] Submissions of preliminary or final official statements or of advance refunding documents by an issuer do not relieve a broker, dealer or municipal securities dealer acting as an underwriter from the requirements of MSRB Rule G-32, on disclosures in connection with primary offerings.
[2] A complete description of the changes to the EMMA information facility can be found in MSRB Notice 2011-20 (March 23, 2011).
[3] The EMMA Dataport page of the EMMA web site also includes information on subscriptions to the information and documents submitted to and available on EMMA.
