WASHINGTON – The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Monday announced seven members of an investor advisory group designed to give its board of directors additional expertise on investor protection issues.
The members include: Joseph John Bridy, a partner at Hamlin Capital Management; Joseph Darcy, executive vice president and sector head of municipal fixed income with Hartford Investment Management Company and; Lyle Fitterer, managing director and head of tax-exempt fixed income with Wells Capital Management.
They also include: Thalia Meehan, a portfolio manager with Putnam Investments; Bill Oliver, who was listed as "a retail investor," but is also industry and media liaison for the National Federation of Municipal Analysts; Betsy Shelton, director of research and senior portfolio manager with Charles Fish Investments, Inc. and: Benjamin Thompson, president and chief executive officer with Fiera Capital, Inc.
MSRB chair Nat Singer said the advisory group, whose members will serve through Sept. 30, 2016 and meet periodically throughout the year at the board's direction, will help ensure the MSRB's deliberations on key issues include the perspectives of active and knowledgeable municipal securities investors.
"The advisory group members each have decades of experience that will enhance the work of the MSRB to promote a fair and efficient market," Singer said.
The MSRB had originally planned to ease its independence standard for the public investor representative on the board, but after negative feedback from some market participants, decided to switch to an advisory group.
The board currently has 21 members with 11 public and 10 regulated members. The public members must be independent from muni brokers, muni advisors, and banks, meaning they are not and have not been associated with a regulated entity for two years. They also cannot have a compensatory or other relationship with a regulated entity that would affect their independence.
Under the MSRB's previous proposal to amend its board membership rule, an employee or officer of an MA-affiliated or dealer-affiliated investment advisory firm could have been considered for the public investor position.
The proposal drew support from former board members and the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, who said it was a way to broaden the candidate pool for the position. But the Securities and Exchange Commission's Investor Advocate Rick Fleming said the proposal was "deeply flawed" and would "undermine the very purpose" of the Dodd-Frank Act. The National Association of Municipal Advisors and Consumer Federation of America also did not support the proposal, saying it would have promoted dealers and institutional investors at the expense of retail investors.
