The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will vote to approve three market activity fees and one municipal advisor professional fee at its upcoming board meeting set to take place Oct. 25-26.
The MSRB’s annual rate card process adjusts its municipal advisor fee, underwriting fee, transaction fee and trade count fee to levels it anticipates will be sufficient “to cover anticipated expenses for the related fiscal year, maintain target contribution balances between fees on regulated entities, address any prior-year variance between the amounts of each of the rate card fees actually collected versus budget, and address any variance between the amount of the Board’s organizational reserves versus the Board’s reserves target,” the MSRB said.
The rates adjust annually so as to ensure a timelier return of excess revenue to regulated entities and to better manage the Board’s reserve funds. The current rates will expire Dec. 31.
The MSRB will also receive an update on the progress being made towards filing proposed amendments to MSRB Rule G-14 on transaction reporting, the board’s controversial proposal that shortens the trade reporting window from 15 minutes to one minute. That proposal is being done in close collaboration with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and before they issue the final amendments, the MSRB wants to be sure both of them are on the same page.
“We want to make sure that our respective time and trade reporting rules are harmonized with one another and that they’re essentially filed at the same time,” Mark Kim, chief executive officer of the MSRB said. “We don’t want two different sets of rules going on the books and then we also don’t want them going on the books at different times. We are in the process of drafting the rule filing and hope to do so in the coming future.”
The board will also discuss the comments it received and next steps for amendments to Rule G-47 on time of trade disclosure, which provides a few clarifications on dealers’ time of trade disclosure obligations, defines the term ‘material information’ for these purposes, and retires and consolidates other elements of the interpretive guidance.
The MSRB board will also receive an update regarding the work being done to modernize the EMMA website and its related market transparency systems, which includes user personalization and improvements to search and the disclosure submission process.
This meeting will mark the first of FY 2024 and the board is still on its way to advancing its FY 2022-2025 strategic plan.