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

Alexandria, VA - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) has submitted a request to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for approval to launch its permanent electronic disclosure service for new issues of municipal bonds beginning June 1, 2009.  Municipal securities dealers will be required to provide to the MSRB municipal bond official statements and advance refunding documents in electronic format, and the MSRB will post these on the MSRB's Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) website at emma.msrb.org for immediate free public access.   If approved, EMMA will become the official outlet for electronic access to comprehensive disclosure documents and trade data for the municipal bond market.

The MSRB already has SEC approval to collect - and post on EMMA for public access at no charge - continuing disclosures from municipal bond issuers in electronic format beginning July 1, 2009.  These documents include annual financial and operating information about issuers, audited financial statements and notices of material events.  The MSRB has also asked the SEC for approval to establish a month-long pilot phase for the continuing disclosure service on EMMA that would also begin on June 1, 2009.  During this phase, issuers and others will be able to make submissions to EMMA of continuing disclosure documents on a voluntary basis.

Yesterday's request by the MSRB follows resolution of an outstanding issue regarding the use of certain third-party proprietary data on EMMA.  Upon approval by the SEC, the MSRB will publish a notice confirming the launch dates for the new disclosure services.  As described in the MSRB's filing with the SEC, a short-transition period will precede the launch of the official statement service, which will allow dealers to defer submissions to the MSRB of new official statements until the EMMA facility commences operations.  It is expected that the legacy electronic submission process known as the e-OS System will be discontinued during the latter half of the transition period in connection with the placing into service of the new EMMA facility, during which time the MSRB will not accept further electronic submissions until the launch of the EMMA submission system.  Details regarding the transition period and the discontinuance of the e-OS System will be included in the notice announcing the SEC's approval.