Select regulatory documents by category:
Bank Dealers, Dealers, Municipal Advisors
All Comments to Notice 2019-13
1. Acacia Financial Group, Inc.: Letter from Kim M. Whelan, Co-President, and Noreen P. White, Co-President, dated August 19, 2019
2. Bond Dealers of America: Letter from Michael Nicholas, Chief Executive Officer, dated August 23, 2019
3. Columbia Capital Management, LLC: Letter from Jeff White, Managing Member, dated August 19, 2019
4. Crews & Associates, Inc.: Letter from Don Winton, Chief Operating Officer, dated August 23, 2019
5. Ehlers: Letter from Phil Cosson, Ehlers Board Chairman
6. First Kentucky Securities Corp.: Email from Stan Kramer dated August 13, 2019
7. Government Finance Officers Association: Letter from Emily Swenson Brock, Director, Federal Liaison Center, dated August 19, 2019
8. KPM Financial, LLC: Letter from Jay Saunders, Director
9. Kutak Rock LLP: Letter from Joshua P. Meyer dated August 16, 2019
10. Lewis Young Robertson & Burningham, Inc.: Letter from Laura D. Lewis, Principal, dated August 7, 2019
11. National Association of Municipal Advisors: Letter from Susan Gaffney, Executive Director, dated August 19, 2019
12. Phoenix Advisors, LLC: Letter from David B. Thompson, CEO, dated August 14, 2019
13. Richard Li: Email dated January 29, 2020
14. Robert W. Doty: Letter dated August 19, 2019
15.Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association: Letter from Leslie M. Norwood, Managing Director and Associate General Counsel, and Bernard V. Canepa, Vice-President and Assistant General Counsel, dated August 19, 2019
16. Speer Financial, Inc.: Letter from Daniel Forbes, President, dated August 19, 2019
17. State of Florida, Division of Bond Finance: Letter from J. Ben Watkins III, Director, dated September 3, 2019
18. Zions Public Finance, Inc. and Zions Bank Public Finance: Letter from James Livingston, Executive Vice President, dated August 14, 2019
Use of Nonqualified Individuals to Solicit New Account Business
The Board has received inquiries whether individuals who solicit new account business on behalf of municipal securities dealers must be qualified under the Board’s rules. In particular, it has come to the Board’s attention that nonqualified individuals are making "cold calls" to individuals and, by reading from prepared scripts, introduce the services offered by a municipal securities dealer, prequalify potential customers, or suggest the purchase of specific securities currently being offered by a municipal securities dealer.
Board rule G-3(a) defines municipal securities representative activities to include any activity which involves communication with public investors regarding the sale of municipal securities but exempts activities that are solely clerical or ministerial. In the past, the Board has permitted nonqualified individuals, under the clerical or ministerial exemption, to contact existing customers in very limited circumstances. In an interpretive notice on rule G-3, the Board permitted certain ministerial and clerical functions to be performed by nonqualified individuals when municipal securities representatives and principals who normally handle the customers' accounts are unavailable, subject to strict supervisory requirements. These functions are: the recording and transmission in customary channels of orders, the reading of approved quotations, and the giving of reports of transactions. In this notice, the Board added that solicitation of orders by clerical personnel is not permitted. The Board is of the view that individuals who solicit new account business are not engaging in clerical or ministerial activities but rather are communicating with public investors regarding the sale of municipal securities and thus are engaging in municipal securities representative activities which require such individuals to be qualified as representatives under the Board’s rules.
Finally, under rule G-3(i)[*], a person serving an apprenticeship period prior to qualification as a municipal securities representative may not communicate with public investors regarding the sale of municipal securities. The Board sees no reason to allow nonqualified individuals to contact public investors, except for the limited functions noted above, when persons training to become qualified municipal securities representatives may not do so.
[*] [Currently codified at rule G-3(a)(iii)]
