WASHINGTON — Dealers will be required to report the contractual dollar price of interdealer muni trades starting no later than March 29, as a result of delays caused by Hurricane Sandy.
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board made the announcement this week, one month after disruptions caused by the storm led it to postpone implementation of the requirement, which was detailed in an August filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The requirements, which was part of a filing that included a host of provisions aimed at improving transparency of large-trade price data and was approved by the SEC in October, had been slated to take effect Nov. 5.
The board said that it will announce the effective date on its website at least 10 business days in advance of the scheduled implementation.
Purchasing and selling dealers will submit contractual dollar prices to the Real-Time Trade Matching system (RTTM), operated by the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC). DTCC forwards the information to the MSRB’s Real-time Transaction Reporting System (RTRS).
DTCC has offices in lower Manhattan, which was flooded by ocean surge when the storm came ashore in New York City Oct. 29.
The MSRB said the storm led DTCC to postpone updates that would allow the RTTM forward the information to RTRS.
The board wants to receive contractual dollar prices of interdealer trades to help it determine whether the data could be used to improve price transparency.
Other aspects of the board’s August filing took effect as planned Nov. 5. The board now posts on its EMMA system, in real time, par amounts of trades of less than $5 million.
Before the change, the board had obscured all par values of trades of more than $1 million for five business days after trade execution with the designation “1MM+.”
Trades of more than $5 million par amounts will continue to be obscured for five business days, with the marker “MM+.”
