WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is looking to fill five spots for its Board of Directors, with a particular emphasis on retail investors.
At the beginning of every year, the MSRB conducts its application process. By law, the board must be made up of a majority of members representing the public, rather than the banks, securities firms, and municipal advisors the board regulates.
Currently the board has 11 public members and 10 members who are representing regulated entities. Of the five prospective board members, three will be public members and two will be regulated.
One of the regulated members has to be a non-dealer municipal advisor, said Lynnette Kelly, MSRB president and chief executive officer.
The new board members will start their terms on Oct. 1, 2019, when the MSRB begins its new fiscal year.
This year the board is interested in individual investors or those who invest on their behalf, Kelly said — both of which are public members.
Chair Gary Hall, Chris Ryon, Renee Boicourt, Richard Ellis and Lakshmi Kommi will leave the board at the conclusion of this fiscal year.Three are public members, and two are regulated.
The MSRB has been criticized in the past for choosing public members that are retired and previously were regulated broker-dealers, advisors, etc.
Previously to be a public board member, industry professionals had to have a two-year separation from being in a regulated role, and the organization has now changed it to three years, Kelly said.
“Governance best practices are always evolving,” Kelly said. “The MSRB reviews our policy on a very frequent basis at a minimum on an annual basis and often times much more frequently than that.”
She added the Nominating and Governance Committee is “attuned to what makes the most sense.”
The Board of Director’s Nominating and Governance Committee accepts applications for at least 30 days through the online Board of Directors Application Portal.
At the end of the submission period, the committee reviews the applications and selects candidates for interviews during the third quarter of the fiscal year, according to their site. After consent to a background check and a questionnaire, the committee nominates candidates to the full Board of Directors for election during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year.
New members and a complete list of applicants will be published on MSRB’s website.
