Contact: Leah Szarek, Chief External Relations Officer
202-838-1300
lszarek@msrb.org
MSRB PUBLISHES 2021 ANNUAL REPORT AND AUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Washington, DC – The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) today published its annual report for the 2021 fiscal year, where it highlights efforts to support a fair and efficient municipal market amid the continued challenges posed by the global pandemic.
“Looking back at what we have accomplished over the past year amid the adversity of the pandemic, we are inspired by the dedication of our people to advance the MSRB’s mission to protect and strengthen the $4 trillion municipal securities market, which enables access to capital, economic growth and societal progress in communities across America,” said MSRB Chair Patrick Brett and CEO Mark Kim in their letter to stakeholders. “One of our most important accomplishments was the development of a new long-term strategic plan that puts forth a bold new vision for the future and four strategic goals that will guide us in the years to come.”
The FY 2021 annual report highlights key progress on the MSRB’s four strategic goals:
- Market Transparency: The MSRB allocated more than $17 million of reserves to its multi-year systems modernization effort and made progress on its goal of modernizing the EMMA website and related market transparency systems.
- Market Data: The MSRB continued to leverage cloud computing to deliver insights to the market and to prepare EMMA Labs, the MSRB’s innovation sandbox, for its public debut.
- Market Regulation: The MSRB embarked on a multi-year comprehensive review of the historical body of interpretive guidance in the MSRB rule book, retiring 15 pieces of guidance that no longer achieved their intended purpose, and continued to provide targeted regulatory relief in light of the ongoing pandemic.
- Public Trust: The MSRB continues to make progress on its commitment to social responsibility, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), including recruiting a diverse class of new Board members and creating a staff resource group focused on DEI.
As part of its commitment to financial stewardship, the MSRB made an important move to right-size its reserves, providing a 40% reduction in three primary market-based fees over an 18-month period that will return to the industry $19 million in excess reserves that had accumulated over time, including as a result of pandemic-related market volatility and reduced expenses. “This has been the most substantial move yet to return of excess reserves to the dealer community,” said Brett and Kim. “We are now embarking on a comprehensive examination of our finances and fee structure to ensure an equitable and sustainable balance of funding that will support our mandate to protect investors, issuers and the public interest in the years to come.”
The annual report includes audited annual financial statements for the fiscal year that ended September 30, 2021, which help ensure transparency around how the organization manages its resources and financial reserves.
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.
