Washington, DC – The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) today published its annual report for the 2020 fiscal year, where it highlights efforts to support a fair and efficient municipal market amid the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The year 2020 was one of change and transition for the MSRB,” said Mark Kim, who was named MSRB Chief Executive Officer October 1. “I am honored to serve as CEO and inspired by the MSRB’s mission to strengthen the bonds that connect us across all of our communities. And I am proud of the resiliency of our organization and the commitment of our people, who have worked tirelessly to carry out our important mission.”

2020 Annual Report Highlights

The MSRB’s 2020 annual report describes the organization’s major initiatives, including a year-long effort to enhance the Board’s governance practices and the delivery of timely information for municipal market participants grappling with the impact of the pandemic. Other highlights include:

• Regulation: The MSRB provided targeted, temporary regulatory relief to allow regulated entities to prioritize resources toward meeting the needs of their employees and clients during the pandemic.
• Technology: The MSRB completed the migration of the Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA®) website and related market transparency systems to the cloud while continuing to enhance EMMA’s value for investors and the industry.
• Data: The MSRB created a new innovation hub, EMMA Labs, to enable collaboration with stakeholders on potential enhancements to the EMMA website that include advanced data analytic tools and capabilities.

The annual report includes audited annual financial statements for the fiscal year that ended September 30, 2020, which help ensure transparency around how the organization manages its resources and financial reserves.

“Higher-than-expected revenues from market activity in 2020 coupled with expense savings as the MSRB pivoted to virtual operations increased reserves,” said Nanette Lawson, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. “As part of our commitment to careful stewardship of industry funding, it is a priority of our Board to focus on right-sizing reserves as we strike a balance between having a fair and equitable fee structure while ensuring reserve levels remain adequate to weather uncertainty regardless of market conditions.”

Read the report.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) protects and strengthens the municipal bond market, enabling access to capital, economic growth, and societal progress in tens of thousands of communities across the country. The MSRB fulfills this mission by creating trust in our market through informed regulation of dealers and municipal advisors that protects investors, issuers and the public interest; building technology systems that power our market and provide transparency for issuers, institutions, and the investing public; and serving as the steward of market data that empowers better decisions and fuels innovation for the future. The MSRB is a self-regulatory organization governed by a board of directors that has a majority of public members, in addition to representatives of regulated entities. The MSRB is overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress.