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

MSRB REQUESTS COMMENT ON SIMPLIFYING
NEW ISSUE SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS FOR UNDERWRITERS  

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) today requested comment on proposed changes to MSRB rules that would allow underwriters of municipal securities to satisfy certain of their obligations to submit information about new issues to the MSRB with their submission of data to the New Issue Information Dissemination Service (NIIDS) operated by the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC). Other proposed changes include revised deadlines for the submission of data, elimination of exceptions for certain issues from the NIIDS submission process, and the inclusion of certain NIIDS data elements on the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA®) system. The proposed changes would improve the timeliness and quality of price transparency for new issues of municipal securities, and streamline data submission requirements for underwriters. 

Currently underwriters are required by MSRB rules to submit similar information on new issues of municipal securities to EMMA and to the NIIDS system. The MSRB is proposing to amend its rules to streamline certain of the submission requirements and to integrate into EMMA certain data submitted by underwriters to DTTC’s new issue service. 

“The MSRB recognizes the need to simplify requirements for municipal securities dealers where appropriate and this proposal will dramatically improve efficiency for disseminaton of new issue information,” said MSRB Executive Director Lynnette Kelly.  

EMMA is an information facility of the MSRB that receives from underwriters electronic submissions of official statements, initial offering prices and other information about new issues and also provides electronic access to ongoing municipal securities disclosure, trade price and interest rate information to the public at no charge on its website. DTCC’s NIIDS system is a centralized system for collecting from underwriters and disseminating to market participants standardized electronic information describing new issue securities. It was developed to ensure that all market participants have access to information necessary for processing transactions once the underwriter executes its first transactions in a new issue.  

Comments on the proposed integration of new issue data between the two systems should be submitted no later than May 8, 2012.

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. 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. 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. MSRB is overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress.

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