Press Release for Land-Secured Finance Steering Committee

On December 16, 1998, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board convened a meeting regarding disclosure in connection with land-secured financing. The meeting was hosted by MSRB Chairman Scott Sollers at the offices of Stone & Youngberg LLC, in San Francisco, California. Attending the meeting were representatives of NFMA, Cal PSA, CASTOFF, MSRB, bond counsel, and senior bankers of Stone & Youngberg LLC.

MSRB Chairman Scott Sollers stated, "The motivation behind the meeting was to follow up on our Forum on Disclosure held in November. We wanted to see what could be done to move forward rapidly with the development of voluntary national standards for disclosure and best practices in land-secured finance." He noted that it was not possible to invite all interested parties to this organizational meeting and that this group would serve only as a "steering committee." This group will be known as the Land-secured Finance Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee, after thorough discussion, concluded that efforts by the National Federation of Municipal Analysts should proceed further and that Forums should be held in Florida and California, probably in the first half of 1999. These Forums would provide an opportunity for investors, issuers, developers, financial advisors, bond counsel, dealers, and other parties to discuss the development of voluntary national standards that could be embraced by all. The Steering Committee wishes to note that this task will be complicated by the diversity in such types of financing and encourages anyone interested to participate in the Forums and communicate with the Steering Committee.

Questions and comments regarding the activities of the Steering Committee may be directed to Carolyn Walsh, Assistant General Counsel, MSRB.

December 21, 1998