MSRB rules

Muni market groups told the MSRB that its latest FAQs about municipal advisors need to more clearly integrate existing guidance from both the board and the SEC to avoid creating confusion.

The MSRB said the paper was prompted in part by the tax law's prohibition on advance refundings and the fact that interest rate swap rules intersect with the board's rules for municipal advisors.

The municipal market appears to be shifting away from its traditional retail-dominated status, which has implications for regulatory policy that's largely aimed at protecting the retail investor.

Vendors, dealers, and regulators say that the integration of sometimes subjective markup disclosure rule requirements into existing broker-dealer systems is proving to be a heavy lift for the industry.

A newly-published MSRB document is aimed at helping to reign in what the SEC has described as fairly widespread violations occurring at smaller municipal advisory firms.

Some worry that MSRB's late release of an updated set of FAQs on markup disclosure requirements will hinder their meeting the May 14 effective date.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board must conduct a test of its business continuity and disaster recovery plans at least once every 12 months.

The web-based, shared content trading muni platform is adding new features and launching ETF and corporate bond software

Analysts have noticed a definite hesitance of issuers to talk to them one-on-one and blame the MSRB's market advisory warning issuers against revealing material information to select investors.

Groups representing both dealer and non-dealer muni advisors are opposed to the MSRB's new rule and rule changes on advertising because they are too dissimilar from FINRA's rules and could be confusing.