Municipal disclosure

While scrutiny of climate risks grows for municipal bond issuers, so do opportunities to broaden investor interest.

Municipal bond issuers say investors, analysts and regulators should narrow down the information they are looking for in their push for more disclosure.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will discuss voluntary disclosure and buy-side perspectives among other topics in March.

The Securities and Exchange Commission wll work with the market to change secondary disclosure habits without a mandate, issuers and analysts said.

Nicole Byrd, a senior investment professional at Nationwide Mutual Insurance, will be the National Federation of Municipal Analysts chair for the next year.

Wisconsin's latest and historical financials, ratings, offering statements, and contacts are now available at Wisconsinbonds.com

Buy side analysts are skeptical about broker-dealer concerns that the order could greatly expand the private placement market.

The median time it takes for municipal bond borrowers to complete their annual audits was 156 days for fiscal 2018: equal to the slowest time in the past 11 years.

Robert Berry was named to replace Mark Campbell as head of the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority released its annual Risk Monitoring and Examinations Priorities letter Thursday.

As interest in climate change and its impact on munis have both skyrocketed, data and research providers hope to move the needle further on those issues for the muni investment world.

The authority is making an investor push ahead of two upcoming deals.

GASB’s final guidance on the Replacement of Interbank Offered Rates is expected to be issued in March, giving state and municipal governments plenty of time to make adjustments before Libor is phased out by the end of 2021.

Events at the SEC are likely to create a number of important MSRB rule changes in the coming year.

Issuers, bond lawyers, and analysts have all raised complaints about the proposed addition to EMMA.

State Treasurer John Schroder said he will go to court to stop Louisiana’s state government from spending the money.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts has consistently called for steps to reduce investors' reliance on stale financial information.

The general obligation bonds are secured by property tax assessments that don't flow through a school district budget that is threatened with insolvency.

“The channel doesn’t matter in terms of responsibility for the information,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton.

If the proposal is approved, the timing of issuers' annual financial disclosures would be prominently displayed as soon as the beginning of 2020.