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

MSRB PROVIDES GUIDANCE TO UNDERWRITERS ON IMPLEMENTATION
OF NEW OBLIGATIONS TO STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS  

Alexandria, VA – The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) today published comprehensive implementation guidance to assist underwriters in meeting their newly expanded legal obligations to state and local governments.

Effective August 2, 2012, underwriters of municipal securities are required to disclose to their state and local government clients information about their role in a municipal bond transaction, risks about complex financial transactions, potential conflicts of interest and compensation received from third-party providers of derivatives and other investments, among other new requirements. These expanded obligations, intended to ensure state and local governments have the necessary information to make decisions when undertaking financial transactions, are outlined in an interpretive notice to MSRB Rule G-17 on fair dealing that was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 4, 2012. The interpretive notice also describes fair dealing responsibilities of underwriters in connection with their representations to issuers and with certain financial aspects of an underwriting.

The new implementation guidance reiterates the principles underlying the interpretive notice and provides practical considerations for underwriters to bear in mind when evaluating their activities and procedures for compliance. 

“The MSRB is providing this guidance to help underwriters in revising their supervisory systems and fully understanding their expanded fair dealing obligations to ensure that important protections for state and local governments are properly implemented,” said MSRB Executive Director Lynnette Kelly.

The implementation guidance supplements other educational materials the MSRB has provided on underwriters’ new obligations to state and local governments.

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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