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Contact: Jennifer Galloway
             (703) 797-6600
             jgalloway@msrb.org

MSRB SEEKS COMMENT ON PROPOSAL TO COLLECT AND DISSEMINATE
529 COLLEGE SAVINGS PLAN DATA

Alexandria, VA – The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) today issued a request for public comment on a plan to create a centralized system for collection and dissemination of market information for 529 college savings plans—programs established by states for families to invest money to pay for qualified higher education expenses of the plans’ beneficiaries. 

Currently, the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) system collects 529 plan disclosure documents, but not other market information for these types of municipal securities. The MSRB is requesting comment on whether collecting additional 529 plan data, such as total plan assets, quarterly contributions and withdrawals, total number of active accounts and total rollover distributions, would be valuable to investors and other market participants.

The MSRB’s mission is, in part, to protect investors by drafting rules governing the activities of dealers who transact business in 529 plans. The MSRB plans to release additional guidance regarding the distribution and sale of interests in 529 plans later this year.

“By gathering market information, the MSRB will have a better understanding of the size and growth of the 529 plan market, which will help inform its rulemaking,” said MSRB Executive Director Lynnette Kelly Hotchkiss.

Comments should be submitted to later than August 31, 2011. Comments should be sent via email to CommentLetters@msrb.org. Please indicate the notice number in the subject line of the email. To submit comments via regular mail, please send them to Ronald W. Smith, Corporate Secretary, MSRB, 1900 Duke Street, Suite 600, Alexandria, VA 22314. Comments will be available for public inspection on the MSRB’s website.

Read the full notice.

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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