The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's Board of Directors had a busy final quarterly meeting of its fiscal 2025 year, electing RBC Capital Markets' Natasha Holiday as its next chair and Wendell Gaertner of Public Resources Advisory Group as its next vice chair.
The board also approved a new multi-year rate card, elected four new members, and gave the go-ahead to a $46.2 million budget for its FY 2026, which begins in October. The MSRB announced these actions in a press release following the conclusion of its meeting, which took place July 23-24.
"I am pleased to announce the election of Natasha and Wendell as our incoming chair and vice chair — especially as they represent the two market participants that MSRB regulates, broker-dealers and municipal advisors," current MSRB Chair Bo Daniels said. "I congratulate them on this tremendous honor and know the industry will be well represented with their leadership when they take the reins as board chair and vice chair in October."
Holiday, a member of The Bond Buyer's
More information on the four new board members will become available in the coming days, the MSRB said. The MSRB's board-approved $46.2 million budget represents a 5.2% decrease from the prior year. While details are not yet public, the MSRB said it will publish a detailed budget document near the beginning of the new fiscal year.
"Upholding our commitment to financial stewardship, budget transparency and public accountability remains of paramount importance to MSRB staff and its Board of Directors," Daniels said. "An open dialogue with stakeholders has provided us with valuable feedback and perspective as we developed our budget for FY 2026."
The board also approved the filing for Securities and Exchange Commission approval of a rate card covering fiscal years 2026-2029. The rate card, which dictates fees charged to dealer firms and municipal advisors, "is expected to reduce MSRB surplus reserves over the next two years by providing a temporary credit against certain market activity-based fees," according to the MSRB release.
Rate card adoption has been difficult in recent years. After stakeholders raised concerns regarding the rate card process in response to the MSRB's fees for 2024, the SEC suspended the MSRB's 2024 rate card filing in January 2024 and the MSRB withdrew it the following month, resetting the fee to the previous year's levels. The MSRB subsequently sought additional comment on its rate card process and discussed the topic at its previous quarterly meeting in April.
"Over the past year, I have been grateful for and appreciate the industry's engagement as we have worked to address their concerns and questions regarding our budget, reserves and fees," MSRB CEO Mark Kim said. "We heard our stakeholders loud and clear, and we hope the amended rate card will provide the industry with greater transparency, less volatility, and more certainty with respect to MSRB's fees going forward."
The amended rate card details will be available later this summer, the MSRB said.
The board also discussed other topics, according to the release, including approval of a request for comment on its Rule G-27 to offer "more flexibility" on supervision requirements. The rule has been scrutinized a number of times in recent years as the MSRB and other regulators have sought to modernize their rulebooks in response to the reality of remote work.
The board also plans to issue a request for comment on draft amendments to replace use of the term "financial advisor" in MSRB rules with the term "municipal advisor." While municipal advisor designation is a conduct-based classification under SEC rules, there has been concern about continued use of the legacy term "financial advisor" to refer to members of a deal team and SEC Muni Office Chief Dave Sanchez
