MSRB proposes additional disclosures through Electronic Municipal Market Access web site

By Jennifer Chiou

New York, July 16 - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced that it filed two proposals with the Securities and Exchange Commission related to its Electronic Municipal Market Access system.

MSRB previously launched its EMMA web site as the official repository for all municipal bond disclosure documents and trade data.

As already noted, MSRB has operated EMMA in various pilot stages since March 2008, but it recently added the final feature of providing electronic access to market-wide continuing disclosure documents.

Among the proposals, MSRB is looking to require brokers, dealers and municipal securities dealers acting as underwriters, placement agents or remarketing agents for primary offerings of municipal securities to provide to EMMA information about whether the issuer or other obligated person has undertaken to provide continuing disclosures, the identity of any obligated person other than the issuer, and the timing by which such issuers or obligated persons have agreed to provide annual financial and operating data.

The other proposal would permit issuers, on a voluntary basis, to submit to EMMA preliminary official statements and other related pre-sale documents, official statements and advance refunding documents, as well as information relating to the preparation and submission of audited financial statements and/or annual financial information and hyperlinks to other disclosure information available from the issuer's web site.

MSRB has requested that the proposals be made effective no later than nine months after SEC approval of the proposals.

Municipal bond issuers are now obligated to provide these documents - including annual financial statements and notices of material events - to the MSRB.

According to a prior MSRB news release, EMMA also collects and makes available municipal bond offering documents, the prices of millions of municipal trades, interest rates and auction results for auction-rate securities, interest rates for variable-rate demand obligations, daily market statistics and educational material about municipal bonds.

Disclosures submitted under both proposals would be made available at www.emma.msrb.org and through EMMA subscription services.

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