MSRB rules

A muni advisor and his firm defrauded a school district in south Texas, lying to it to gain business and failing to disclose a conflict of interest.

The MSRB said its newly-approved rules are an important part of its regulatory efforts, while groups representing dealers and MAs are say they are confusing and need clarification.

Issuers and the MSRB are mostly on the same page about primary offering practices that may warrant scrutiny, but some members of the GFOA's debt committee are concerned about "regulatory creep."

The MSRB said its proposals should be approved, despite objections from dealers and municipal advisors.

The MSRB will ask for market feedback on potential interpretive guidance related to a practice the board worries may impair market liquidity.

As the Electronic Municipal Market Access website enters its second decade, look for a series of investor-focused enhancements, including streamlined design and more intuitive navigation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's decision not to extend the effective date of new markup disclosure requirements is disappointing to dealer groups, which have pushed hard for months for a delay.

A Securities and Exchange Commission proposal that may trigger additional MSRB rulemaking is open for comment, and the MSRB is scheduled to discuss it next week.

Lombard Securities and McDonald Partners agreed to pay fines after FINRA examiners found various violations of MSRB rules, including supervisory failures and trade reporting deficiencies.

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.