The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday approved rule changes that would allow underwriters to fulfill some new-issue reporting requirements by filing information with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.'s New Issue Information Dissemination Service, or NIIDS.
The change to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's Rule G-32 on primary offering disclosures is meant to address duplicative reporting requirements in that rule and Rule G-34 on CUSIP numbers and new issue requirements.
Currently, Rule G-32 requires underwriters to submit a Form G-32 to the EMMA system, by the end of the first day a muni transaction is executed. The form requests information such as the issuers's name, a description of the issue, the CUSIP number, the principal amount of the bonds and the initial offering prices or yields.
Rule G-34 requires underwriters to submit much of the same information to NIIDS within two hours of the time an issuer awards bonds to an underwriter.
With the change, underwriters can fulfill some G-32 reporting obligations through submissions to NIIDS.
Underwriters would still be required to submit certain new-issue information on Form G-32, such as underwriting spreads and the existence of continuing disclosure agreements.
The MSRB filed the rule change with the SEC in October.
The MSRB has said it has planned for years to integrate EMMA data with NIIDS data, but the integration was slowed because EMMA's development schedule didn't mesh with the timeframe for NIIDS.
