Back to top
Date:

Contact: Jennifer A. Galloway, Chief Communications Officer
              (703) 797-6600
              jgalloway@msrb.org


MSRB BEGINS COLLECTING ADDITIONAL MUNICIPAL SECURITIES DISCLOSURES

Alexandria, VA – The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) announced that, effective today, its Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) system will collect and make available to the public additional ongoing disclosures made by municipal securities issuers and obligated persons about their bonds.

The changes are in response to recent amendments made by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to Securities Exchange Act Rule 15c2-12 (Rule 15c2-12). Rule 15c2-12 prohibits the sale of most primary offering of municipal securities unless the underwriter determines that the issuer has agreed to disclose certain information, such as annual financial statements, and to provide certain event notices, such as payment defaults. The amendments, among other things, establish a timeliness standard of 10 business days for submission to the MSRB of a notice after the occurrence of an event listed in Rule 15c2-12, deletes the “materiality” condition for certain event notices, allows for additional tax-related disclosures and adds new events to the notice list.

To permit issuers to comply with the SEC’s amendments to Rule 15c2-12, the MSRB has modified its Continuing Disclosure Submission and Subscription Services to permit issuers to provide the MSRB with the new categories of disclosures listed in Rule 15c2-12. The MSRB will make these disclosures available to the public for free on its EMMA website, at www.emma.msrb.org.

In addition to the existing event notices, for bonds issued after December 1, 2010, municipal securities issuers and obligated persons will also need to submit notification of the following event-based continuing disclosure documents:

  • tender offers;
  • bankruptcy, insolvency, receivership or similar proceeding;
  • mergers, consolidations, acquisitions, the sale of all or substantially all of the assets of the obligated person or their termination, if material; and
  • the appointment of a successor or additional trustee or the change of the name of a trustee, if material.

EMMA users can sign up for an unlimited number of email alerts regarding the availability of disclosures made for municipal securities. With the alerts feature, investors and others who track particular securities—identified by their unique "CUSIP" numbers—receive an email notification from EMMA every time a new disclosure document is posted for that security. The “Alerts” link is located in the upper-right corner of every EMMA webpage.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) was established by Congress in 1975 with the mission to protect investors, issuers and the public interest and to promote efficiency, competition and capital formation. MSRB is a private, self-regulatory organization governed by an independent board of directors with market knowledge and expertise. MSRB does not receive federal appropriations and is funded primarily through fees paid by regulated entities. MSRB is overseen by Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Print