WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to launch its new office of municipal securities by the end of October, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro plans to tell the Senate Banking Committee this morning.
In prepared remarks on implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Schapiro is expected to announce that the SEC also plans to transfer existing staff working on municipal securities to the new office and begin recruiting for a new director who will report directly to the chairman.
As reported in The Bond Buyer Thursday, the SEC has already quietly hired the head-hunting firm Korn/Ferry International to find candidates to lead a new muni office.
Korn/Ferry is looking for candidates outside the commission who have broad-based managerial experience, according to market participants familiar with the matter and a nine-page confidential Korn/Ferry document obtained by The Bond Buyer.
Currently, the muni office is housed within the SEC’s ¬division of trading and markets and has only two full-time employees — Martha Mahan Haines, its chief, and Mary Simpkins, senior special counsel. Market participants believe it is unlikely Haines will head the new office or that the job will be filled ¬internally.
Specifically, the new muni office will: administer rules pertaining to broker-dealers, muni advisers, investors, and issuers of municipal securities. It also will coordinate with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on rulemaking and enforcement actions.
Schapiro also plans to announce that the SEC is in the process of establishing a new Office of Credit Rating Agencies, is actively recruiting for its new director who will also report to the chairman, and has posted 25 new credit rating agency examination positions.
The new office will conduct annual exams of each nationally recognized statistical rating organization, or NRSRO, report generally on those exams, and conduct studies relating to credit rating agencies regarding, among other things, NRSRO independence, conflicts of interest and standardizing ratings terminology, according to an advance copy of her testimony.
To fully implement the numerous Dodd-Frank mandates on the SEC, Schapiro plans to reiterate that it will need “approximately 800 new positions over time.”
