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Contact: Jennifer A. Galloway, Chief Communications Officer
              202-838-1500
              jgalloway@msrb.org

MSRB MAKES ABLE OFFERING DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE ON EMMA

Washington, DC – The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) announced today that for the first time, an offering document about securities established by states under the Stephen Beck Jr., Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014 (ABLE Act) is available on the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA®) website. The ABLE Act allows states to establish tax-advantaged savings vehicles that support individuals with disabilities in maintaining health, independence and quality of life.

ABLE offering documents—also known as program disclosure booklets—will be made available on EMMA both voluntarily by states and per MSRB regulations by municipal securities dealers involved in the primary offering of ABLE programs. The program disclosure booklet for the State of Ohio’s ABLE program is now on EMMA.

“We are very happy to see that the first ABLE disclosure document was filed voluntarily by a state,” said MSRB Executive Director Lynnette Kelly. “To promote a fair and transparent municipal securities market, we look forward to making all ABLE program disclosure booklets widely available to the public on EMMA.”

ABLE programs sold by MSRB-regulated dealers, which underwrite other municipal fund securities such as 529 college savings plans, are required to comply with investor protection rules. These rules include providing a customer, no later than the settlement of the transaction, a copy of the program disclosure booklet, which now can also be found on EMMA.

The EMMA website is the MSRB’s official repository for information on virtually all municipal securities, including municipal fund securities. EMMA provides free public access to official disclosures, trade data, credit ratings, educational materials and other information about the municipal securities market.

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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