Notice of Proposed Rule Change to Offer New Historical Data Product

On September 15, 2004, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (“MSRB”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) a proposed rule change to offer a new transparency product containing historical trade data obtained through the MSRB’s Transaction Reporting System (the “Historical Data Product”).[1]   

DESCRIPTION OF NEW HISTORICAL DATA PRODUCT 

The Historical Data Product will include information for each inter-dealer trade reported since January 24, 1995, and for each customer and inter-dealer trade reported since August 25, 1998, regardless of the number of times a particular issue traded (i.e., the data will not be limited to “frequently traded” issues).  The transaction information will be the same as that currently provided in the MSRB’s Comprehensive Transaction Report, including the trade date, the CUSIP number of the issue traded, a short description of the issue, the size of the transaction (including the exact par amount reported to the MSRB on transactions in amounts greater than one million dollars), the time of trade as reported by the dealer, the price of the transaction, the dealer-reported yield (if any), and a designation as to whether the transaction is a sale by a dealer to a customer, a purchase from a customer, or an inter-dealer trade.  The MSRB proposes to charge $600 for a one-year collection of historical data to cover the administrative costs associated with providing this data.  The Historical Data Product will be available, at the purchaser’s option, either on CD-ROM or by download over the Internet.  The MSRB will continue to produce its Comprehensive Transaction Report on a one-week delayed basis with details about all transactions traded one-week prior, and will continue to offer it under its current subscription terms and rate. 

September 15, 2004

[1] File No. SR-MSRB-2004-05. Comments on the proposed rule change should be submitted to the SEC and should reference this file number.