When Mary Simpkins joined the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities in November 1997, it wasn't – as she now recalls – with the intention of staying there for the rest of her legal career.
In fact Simpkins, whose father was a surgeon with the U.S. Navy, was no stranger to frequent moves, having spent part of her childhood on Guam.
But she did stay at OMS – through nine SEC chairmen and nearly three decades before
"I probably did not think I would be there that long, but you know it's just such a wonderful community at the SEC with a great depth of expertise," Simpkins said in a recent interview. "And, you know, working in the public interest, I found to be just very satisfying, so I probably stayed longer than I initially expected."
She was at OMS as it navigated challenges including concerns about potential Y2K computer glitches ahead of the year 2000, the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic-related turmoil that gripped the municipal market early in 2020.
During her SEC career, she fielded calls coming into OMS from people ranging from attorneys seeking information on complex legal topics to retail investors unable to get their money out after the auction rate securities market froze in 2008, she said.
"Enforcement brought a number of cases related to that, but it was a difficult time," Simpkins said of the ARS market meltdown.
One of the reasons the SEC takes such a keen interest in municipal securities "is because there are so many retail investors in the market," she said.
"Overall, I think most people in the muni market are trying to do the right thing, but there are some bad actors, and that's where the SEC comes in," Simpkins said.
While proper regulation can help protect municipal securities investors, it also benefits regulated entities by enhancing trust and promoting fairness, she said.
"Proper regulation can make a big difference in the market I think," Simpkins said.
While the municipal securities market is subject to the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, "it's not subject to the registration and reporting requirements of the corporate market," she said.
Dodd-Frank, enacted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, marked a "seminal" event in terms of municipal market regulation, Simpkins said.
"I guess while I was there, Dodd-Frank probably required the most change," she said, adding that when it was enacted, "that required a lot of rulemaking on our part."
The SEC staff "worked hard … to register all the municipal advisors, which I think has enhanced the competency of advisors and reduced conflicts of interest," she said.
Prior to Dodd-Frank – which was signed into law in July 2010 – the people who advised issuers on municipal offerings "were totally unregulated and we're talking about millions and billions of dollars in offerings," Simpkins said, adding that achieving even slightly better deal terms can mean significant savings for issuers.
"A lot of money is at stake, so it's important that the people advising them are qualified and don't have conflicts of interest," she said.
Another "seminal change" was the commission's designation of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's EMMA system as the central repository for municipal documents, Simpkins said.
"That was a big event in the history of the municipal market to have this central location for documents," she said.
EMMA was launched in March 2008.
The Office of Municipal Securities was first established on March 22,1995, as Simpkins herself said in a December 2000 memo to the Office of Congressional Affairs regarding key municipal market reforms and events during the tenure of then SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt.
When Levitt left the commission, OMS was moved into what was then called the SEC's Division of Market Regulation, which later became known as the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets, she said.
"For a time when we were in Trading and Markets,
"But you know we were handling MSRB filings, answering questions, drafting guidance, preparing briefing materials, consulting with enforcement, sometimes speaking at conferences," she said. "When we had to do rulemaking, we would get other people from the Division of Trading and Markets to help us, but it was just very busy trying to do all that."
In 2012, OMS was established as an independent office whose director reports to the SEC chairman as required under Section 979 of Dodd-Frank. Contacted just prior to Simpkins' retirement, John Cross, who served as the first director of the newly independent OMS, said her expertise will be missed.
"Mary Simpkins was in the Office of Municipal Securities when I joined it as the first director in 2012," Cross said. "She was a great asset to the office and a tremendous source of institutional knowledge about the background of municipal securities and the SEC's role in regulating the municipal market."
Dave Sanchez is the current director of the SEC's Office of Municipal Securities, having assumed the role in April 2022.
Simpkins, who earned her undergraduate degree in 1977 from Vanderbilt University where she majored in economics and her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1980, worked at law firms prior to joining OMS.
When it comes to retirement, Simpkins doesn't have a "master plan."
"But I have a lot of interests," she said, adding that those interests include travel, theater and reading. "I also go down to Nashville a lot because I own a family farm nearby with my siblings."
