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Contact:          Jennifer A. Galloway, Chief Communications Officer
                       (703) 797-6600
                       jgalloway@msrb.org


MUNICIPAL SECURITIES RULEMAKING BOARD BEGINS COLLECTING
CONTINUING DISCLOSURE DOCUMENTS FOR PUBLIC ACCESS
Documents Are Available on the MSRB's EMMA Website

Alexandria, VA - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) today began collecting electronic continuing disclosure documents on a pilot basis from municipal bond issuers and making them available for public access on the MSRB's Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) website.  Issuers, obligated persons and those that act on their behalf will be submitting continuing disclosure documents - such as annual financial and operating information about issuers, audited financial statements and notices of material events - to EMMA on a voluntary basis during the month of June.  Submission of these documents to EMMA becomes mandatory on July 1, 2009.

"This pilot period will be beneficial for both investors and issuers," said Lynnette Kelly Hotchkiss, executive director of the MSRB.  "Investors can get a preview of the municipal disclosure documents they will see in much greater volume beginning July 1, and issuers can get a head start registering with the MSRB and submitting documents before the mandatory start date."  EMMA, at www.emma.msrb.org, is a centralized collection of electronic municipal disclosure documents, official statements and trade data that provides free public access to the information.

Beginning today, investors for the first time will have free access to on EMMA to some continuing disclosure document submissions from municipal bond issuers that choose to make use of the pilot.  Over time, EMMA will be populated by a growing library of continuing disclosures that will complement the vast warehouse of existing official statements and other municipal bond data on EMMA. In addition to disclosure documents, EMMA houses real-time and historical trade data for municipal bonds, interest rates and auction results for auction rate securities, interest rates for variable rate demand obligations, daily market statistics and useful educational material about municipal bonds.

Through EMMA, the MSRB seeks to improve transparency in the municipal securities market and offer additional resources to investors.  Today's pilot continuing disclosure submission service and the mandatory submission by municipal securities dealers of electronic official statements to EMMA significantly increases the volume of document submissions to EMMA.  The MSRB recognizes that these changes are new to the issuer and dealer communities and is working to make the transition as smooth as possible.  The MSRB is providing ongoing training and is committed to resolving issues related to EMMA as they arise.

During the pilot phase, the MSRB has provided several tools to help issuers get acquainted with the EMMA system and to use the full capabilities of the EMMA website before the mandatory July 1, 2009 date.  Issuers can find instructions on registering and submitting documents to EMMA on the EMMA Dataport page.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) protects and strengthens the municipal bond market, enabling access to capital, economic growth, and societal progress in tens of thousands of communities across the country. The MSRB fulfills this mission by creating trust in our market through informed regulation of dealers and municipal advisors that protects investors, issuers and the public interest; building technology systems that power our market and provide transparency for issuers, institutions, and the investing public; and serving as the steward of market data that empowers better decisions and fuels innovation for the future. The MSRB is a self-regulatory organization governed by a board of directors that has a majority of public members, in addition to representatives of regulated entities. The MSRB is overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress.

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