Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board

Filing Period

Oct 1, 2012 to Sep 30, 2013

Signed

Feb 12, 2014

Return Version

2012v2.1

Gross Receipts

$39,270,359

Mission

Major Activities

Activity 2

Collecting and disseminating market information: see schedule ocollecting and disseminating market information: the msrb collects municipal market documents and data (collectively "information") from regulated entities, municipal entities, obligated persons, and/or their agents and makes the information widely available. Msrb's collection of information serves a critical role in preserving fairness and efficiency of the municipal market. By redisseminating this information to municipal market participants, and to regulators charged with examining for compliance with and enforcing msrb rules, and other regulatory and policymaking bodies, the msrb ensures that the market operates transparently and efficiently.under its rulemaking authority, the msrb has established "information facilities" that provide the legal foundation for the collection and dissemination of municipal market information. These facilities provide the msrb with the authority to collect municipal transaction prices (with respect to customer and inter-dealer transactions in municipal securities); official statements, preliminary official statements, and advance refunding documents (in connection with new issues of municipal securities); continuing disclosure documents (in connection with outstanding issues of municipal securities); interest rate information and related documentation for certain short-term obligations (in connection with outstanding variable rate demand obligations and auction rate securities); and information regarding business undertaken by, and certain political contributions made by, brokers, dealers, and municipal securities dealers or their professionals and certain related political action committees (in connection with the msrb's pay-to-play rule). The msrb provides most of this information to the public, free of charge, on its electronic municipal market access (emma) website at emma.msrb.org. In addition, access to most information collected by the msrb is available to subscribers through paid automated subscription services. As of the end of fy 2013, the msrb offered five principal data products with approximately 125 active subscription agreements.enhancements to market information provided on emma, as well as the functionality of the website, provided by the msrb during fy 2013 include: - enhanced the emma market statistics page to include monthly data on new issuance volume;- began to display both the initial offering dollar price and yield for a bond as well as the time of formal award and time of first execution for most new issues of municipal securities;- added access on emma to municipal securities dealers' disclosures of political contributions and expanded disclosures concerning dealer contributions to bond ballot campaigns;- began to display in real-time on emma par value on all transactions of $5 million or less to provide more complete and timely information about municipal securities trades;- required municipal securities dealers to report the contractual dollar price at which inter-dealer transactions were executed and added yield to this information;- conformed bid-to-cover ratios for auction rate securities to a calculation that is more consistent with treasury auction results;- developed a free email reminder service to notify municipal securities issuers in advance of their filing deadlines for financial disclosures to help ensure users have the most current information;- enhanced the search functionality on emma to allow users to search by a combination of descriptive characteristics of municipal securities as well as trade data and disclosures;- added alerts for disclosures related to 529 college savings plans;- facilitated monitoring of securities or a market segment by enabling specific securities to be saved in groups and searches to be conducted on those securities, and added the ability to save frequently used sets of search criteria;- introduced a limited pilot "issuer homepage" that would provide a new means

Activity 3

Engaging in education, outreach and market leadership: see schedule oengaging in education, outreach and market leadership: the msrb engages municipal market participants, regulators and policy makers to build understanding of the municipal market and to promote practices and policies, as well as problem-solving, that protect investors, municipal entities, obligated persons and the public interest. The msrb also engages in education and outreach activities to support the understanding of the municipal market and to help further protect investors, municipal entities, obligated persons and the public interest.during fyi 2013, highlights in this area include:- sponsored the semi-annual msrb industry roundtable, reinforcing the msrb's reputation as a facilitator in market-wide discussions about important issues;- sponsored a series of roundtables on public pension plans;- produced three investor education videos on the role of the msrb in the municipal market, how to use the emma website to make informed decisions and what investors should expect when working with a broker;- added new resources to the online "msrb investor toolkit" to help municipal bond investors navigate the market and make decisions about municipal bonds;- added a series of new resources on financial disclosure and other topics to the electronic "msrb state and local government toolkit" to help municipal bond issuers better understand the bond issuance process and the emma website;- hosted free, public webinars on new msrb rules and market transparency initiatives; and, - testified at a securities and exchange commission roundtable on fixed income markets on "potential improvements to market structure for municipal securities".

Filer

EIN

52-1042433