WASHINGTON — The annual number of continuing disclosure documents muni bond issuers filed with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board continues to increase, with issuers submitting 139,043 documents in the 12 months ending in June 2012, according to an MSRB report released Wednesday.
That's a 5% jump from the previous 12-month period, when issuers submitted 132,842 disclosures, and a 12% increase from the 12 months before that, when issuers filed 124,206 documents.
Among the continuing disclosures filed in the last 12 months were 81 notices of bankruptcy, insolvency or receivership. That's three times more than in the previous 12-month period, when there were 27 such notices. Issuers filed no notices of bankruptcy, insolvency or receivership during the period from July 2009 to June 2010.
The MSRB has received a total of 396,091 continuing disclosures since it began collecting the documents on the board's online EMMA system in July 2009, the report said.
Of the total number of documents submitted during the three-year period, 208,642, or 53%, were material-event notices.
Among those were 153,092 notices of bond calls and 28,509 notices of rating changes. There were also 7,176 notices of defeasance, 1,822 notices of a bid for auction-rate or other securities and 9,744 notices of "other event-based disclosures," which include events that do not fall into the categories on MSRB submission forms. Details about those disclosures can only be found in individual documents.
Financial and operating disclosures accounted for 187,449 documents, or 47% of the 396,091 disclosures filed during the three years.
Among those were 74,677 audited financial statements or comprehensive annual financial reports (CAFRs), nearly 60,000 disclosures of annual financial information and operating data, and 23,613 quarterly or monthly financial filings.
The board noted that the number of quarterly and monthly financial disclosures increased every month year over year.
Other types of financial and operating disclosure included consultant reports, budgets, investment policies, interim financial information and changes to fiscal years and accounting standards.
The MSRB said that between July 2009 and June 2012 issuers submitted 5,289 notices of "failure to provide annual financial information." The Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 15c2-12 requires that issuers submit such notices if they do not file annual and operating information by their self-imposed deadlines.
California and its municipalities accounted for 12% of disclosures during the three-year period, and Texas and its issuers submitted 10% of filings. Florida, New York and Pennsylvania, and their municipalities, submitted 7%, 6% and 5% of filings, respectively.
