MSRB Monthly Update - February 2012

Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board sent this bulletin at 02/10/2012 09:52 AM EST

The MSRB is hosting an education and outreach seminar on Wednesday, February 22, 2012 in Dallas, Texas.

The event will provide an opportunity for municipal market professionals to learn about MSRB initiatives and current rulemaking to protect investors and municipal entities.

The MSRB will also host an education and outreach seminar in Chicago, Illinois on Wednesday, April 11, 2012.

The MSRB is on Twitter. Follow @MSRB_News for updates on municipal market regulation, the EMMA website and other MSRB initiatives.

Highlight of the Month

The MSRB Board of Directors recently held its quarterly meeting where it addressed investor and municipal entity protection, and approved a long-range plan for support of the MSRB's market transparency systems. Read more about upcoming MSRB initiatives or about past Board actions.

New and Noteworthy

EMMA Mobile Coming This Month

Later this month, the MSRB will release a mobile-friendly version of its Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA®) website. EMMA Mobile will optimize certain features of the full website, such as search functions, recent trade prices and market statistics, and is designed for regular users of the EMMA website.

MSRB Seeks Seven New Board Members

The MSRB is currently accepting applications for its Board of Directors through March 1, 2012. Learn about membership requirements, the application process and how to apply online.

EMMA Market Statistics

Small Trades Decrease in January*

Municipal securities trades of $100,000 or less, which are typically used as a proxy for retail activity, continued to trend lower, accounting for 81.4 percent of the 797,451 trades in January 2012, the lowest percentage since September 2011. On average, these smaller trades accounted for nearly 83 percent of all trades in 2011. In terms of par traded, trades of $100,000 or less accounted for 9.5 percent of all par traded in January, slightly below the average of 9.6 percent for 2011.

As a comparison, trades of more than $1 million accounted for 3.5 percent of all trades and 72.0 percent of all par amount traded in January 2012.

For more information or other statistics on municipal trading activity, continuing disclosures or variable rate resets, visit the MSRB's EMMA website.

*Based on trading data as of February 2, 2012

Regulatory Roundup

MSRB Requests Comment on Proposal to Restrict Underwriters' Provision of Bondholder Consent

(February 7, 2012)

MSRB to Make Inter-Dealer Yields Available on Its EMMA Website (January 20, 2012)

STAY CONNECTED:

Update your subscriptions, modify your email address or stop subscriptions at any time by going to your Subscriber Preferences Page. You will need to use your email address to log in. If you have questions or problems with the subscription service, please contact support@govdelivery.com.

If you have an MSRB Gateway account or are a regulated entity under MSRB Rule G-40 and wish to update your email address with the MSRB, you must do so through MSRB Gateway. For G-40 accounts, changes made to the MSRB’s email alert system will not satisfy your obligation to provide the MSRB with accurate contact information.

Please note this message was sent from an unmonitored, automated email account. If you wish to contact the MSRB, please click on the below “Contact Us” link.