EMMA augments data offerings with BondWave yield curve

WASHINGTON -- The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has added BondWave’s Municipal AA QCurve to the tools its EMMA website offers to help stakeholders track municipal bond interest rates and compare yields.

The MSRB announced the addition Tuesday. The BondWave curve is one of four third-party yield curves on EMMA, which also provides the S&P Municipal Bond Index.

“The additional yield curve gives investors another tool intended to help monitor the level and direction of municipal bond interest rates, and compare relative yields of specific municipal securities,” the MSRB wrote in its press release.

The Board originally launched the yield curves in the summer of 2017, giving users access to more detailed data than was previously on the site. By viewing the yield curves in real time, investors can view different maturities in either graph or chart form via a drop-down menu.

Bloomberg, IHS Markit and MBIS also have yield curves displayed on EMMA.

Users can view the curves or values in table format and filter by date range and credit quality. They can select different dates in the past to see how the curve has changed over time and can compare multiple yield curves for a single maturity using past yield data over a desired date range.

Discussions began in 2012 to add yield curves and indices to EMMA by conducting an extensive review of muni bond indexes with the aim of increasing transparency and educating market participants.

In 2018, the MSRB said its decision to begin adding yield curves and indices to EMMA was consistent with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recommendations in its 2012 Report on the Municipal Securities Market. The SEC suggested in that report that the MSRB could improve EMMA by making such information easily accessible to retail investors.