Municipal disclosure

Besides navigating coronavirus market disruption, investors also find themselves dealing with the increasingly important and often inconsistent climate risk disclosure.

Primary market COVID-19 disclosures increased to 2,926 filings from 2,529 the week prior. Continuing disclosures increased to 6,107 filings from 5,677.

Municipalities are making draws on reserves as revenues fall due to the pandemic.

The SEC has asked for more timely, voluntary disclosure from issuers of municipal bonds.

State and local governments have increasingly filed COVID-19-related disclosures to the market, but only about 931 issuers out of roughly 40,000 have filed over 1,500 material event notices and continuing disclosures since the pandemic began.

The announcement comes at a pivotal time for the municipal market as the SEC released a statement earlier this month detailing the kinds of coronavirus disclosures municipalities should be making.

The MSRB also said more municipalities have begun referencing CARES Act loans in their disclosures.

It is feasible that not all COVID-19 filings are or will be material but one may want to err on the side of caution in this regard.

More issuers are missing bond payments and deadlines for filing annual financials; the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans filed for bankruptcy partially blaming COVID-19, affecting $41 million of bonds.

Mark Kim, MSRB chief operating officer, predicted even more disclosures in the near future.