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

 

MUNICIPAL SECURITIES RULEMAKING BOARD FILES
PROPOSAL TO POST CREDIT RATINGS ON EMMA  

Alexandria, VA – The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) today filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a proposal to amend the continuing disclosure service of its Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) system to provide for the posting of municipal securities credit ratings on the EMMA website. The MSRB has requested an effective date for the proposed rule change no later than nine months after SEC approval.

“Today’s filing brings us a step closer to putting real-time municipal bond ratings on EMMA,” said MSRB Board Chair Peter Clarke. “This enhancement will provide all market participants with another key data element for evaluating municipal bonds. The availability of ratings on EMMA, together with trade data and market disclosures, will elevate EMMA to a new level of transparency and usefulness.”   

The MSRB is creating an automated process for posting on EMMA municipal securities ratings issued by credit rating agencies, referred to as nationally recognized statistical rating organizations, or NRSROs, that agree to make such ratings available to the public through the free EMMA website. EMMA would display the credit ratings on a nearly real-time basis, together with other information available on EMMA such as municipal securities offering documents, continuing disclosures, and transaction price data.

EMMA is a centralized online database that provides free public access to official disclosure documents associated with municipal bonds issued in the United States. EMMA also provides real-time trade data for approximately 1.2 million outstanding municipal bonds and current interest rates for auction rate securities and variable rate demand obligations.  EMMA provides transparency of information for investors in this important financial market and makes it easy — and free — for them to access bond disclosures and pricing data that can inform investment decisions.  Information available on EMMA includes snapshots of daily trade data based on security size, sector, maturity and source of repayment, educational material about bonds and their associated documents, and a comprehensive glossary of municipal bond terms.

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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