WASHINGTON — Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Schapiro will not preside over a municipal securities hearing in Birmingham, Ala., Friday, citing personal reasons.
Schapiro had been slated to appear at the one-day session, along with SEC commissioner Elisse Walter and Rep. Spencer Bachus, R.-Ala., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, whose district includes Birmingham.
SEC spokesman John Nester confirmed that Schapiro will not attend the hearing, saying she had a personal family emergency.
Walter and Bachus will open the proceedings with remarks Friday, before panels devoted to distressed communities, small issuers, disclosure, muni derivatives and pre-trade price transparency, according to a hearing agenda posted on the commission’s website Thursday.
Walter is spearheading a commission-wide review of the municipal securities market and presided over the SEC’s muni hearings in San Francisco and Washington last year.
A range of market participants are scheduled to appear at the Birmingham hearing, including public finance attorneys, academics, and issuers. Ben Watkins, director of Florida's division of bond finance, will speak on the disclosure panel. Mary-Margaret Collier, Tennessee’s director of state and local finance, will speak on the muni derivatives panel. Former SEC commissioner Richard Roberts, a principal at Roberts, Raheb & Gradler LLC in Washington, is slated to speak on the pre-trade price transparency panel.
