NFMA Holds Annual Awards Dinner

LAS VEGAS — The National Federation of Municipal Analysts presented awards to market participants, including issuers for the first time, at its annual award dinner here Thursday night.

The 1,200-member group’s Award of Excellence for 2012 went to NFMA affiliate organization Municipal Analysts Group of New York. The NFMA noted that in the past year MAGNY has held events that included speakers such as Detroit Mayor David Bing and John Young, the Jefferson County’s. court-appointed receiver. In addition, the NFMA said MAGNY promoted education by allowing NFMA’s members to participate in its meetings through teleconferencing.

Joe Mysak, editor and columnist at Bloomberg, received the NFMA’s Career Achievement Award for 2012. The industry group said he has the ability to make complex topics understandable to a varied audience. Mysak, who also wrote the book “Encyclopedia of Municipal Bonds: A Reference Guide to Market Events, Structures, Dynamics, and Investment Knowledge,” won the NFMA’s Industry Contribution Award in 1998.

The NFMA also announced winners of the group’s new Excellence in Disclosure Awards, which recognize issuers that make managers accessible to analysts, and those that provide timely and useful credit information to the market.

The state of Florida won the general government category, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport won the enterprise category, and San Francisco-based Dignity Health, formerly Catholic Healthcare West, won the not-for-profit/other category.

NFMA board chairman Greg Aikman, an executive at BNY Mellon Wealth Management, said in March that he hopes the new awards will put a “positive spin” on the the group’s disclosure efforts.

“Everyone knows there are deficiencies in secondary market disclosure, some pretty serious,” he said. “But over the past few years I’ve noticed there are some issuers who do a great job.”

Members of NFMA’s board and committees nominated issuers to be considered for the awards, and winners were determined by a vote of members.

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Washington
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