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Rule
Summary

Prohibits dealers from effecting transactions in municipal securities and municipal advisors from engaging in municipal advisory activities unless they and their associated personnel are qualified in accordance with MSRB rules.

Notice
SEC Approves Amended MSRB Rule G-3 Creating an Exemption for Municipal Advisor Representatives from Requalification by Examination and Related Amendments to MSRB Rule G-8
View Notice

No broker, dealer or municipal securities dealer shall effect any transaction in, or induce or attempt to induce the purchase or sale of, any municipal security, and no municipal advisor shall engage in municipal advisory activities, unless such broker, dealer, municipal securities dealer or municipal advisor and every natural person associated with such broker, dealer, municipal securities dealer or municipal advisor is qualified in accordance with the rules of the Board.

Interpretive Guidance - Interpretive Letters
Publication date:

Execution of Infrequent Unsolicited Orders

Execution of infrequent unsolicited orders. This is in response to your letter in which you state that your firm is a discount broker that executes orders on an unsolicited basis and that occasionally a customer will approach your firm to sell a municipal security they own or to purchase a specific issue.  You ask that the Board give consideration to allowing a firm like yours to act as a broker/dealer for customers on an unsolicited basis without being required to have an associated person qualified as a municipal securities principal.

Rule G-2, on standards of professional qualification, states that no dealer shall effect any transaction in, or induce or attempt to induce the purchase or sale of, any municipal security unless such dealer and every natural person associated with such dealer is qualified in accordance with the rules of the Board.  Rule G-3, on professional qualifications, states that a dealer that conducts a general securities business shall have at least one associated person qualified as a municipal securities principal to supervise the dealer’s municipal securities activities.

The Board’s rules do not provide an exemption from the numerical requirements for municipal securities principals based on the type of transactions in municipal securities in which a dealer engages.  There also is no exemption from the Board’s rules based on a de minimus number of transactions in municipal securities.  MSRB interpretation of October 2, 1998.