WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board revised its three online information facilities to add references to the self-regulator's core operational hours and highlight the 24/7 availability of a number of the systems' functions.
The self-regulator announced the changes Thursday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The revisions, which also fix a few smaller problems like the need to make time conventions consistent across the facilities, became effective after the filing and will become operative on Aug. 24, MSRB said.
"The purpose of the rule change is to better align the language of the information facilities for the Electronic Municipal Market Access system, Real-time Transaction Reporting System and Short-term Obligation Rate Transparency system to the MSRB's administration of these systems," the
EMMA, RTRS and SHORT all have core operation hours between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on business days, according to the MSRB. The listing of the hours is meant to show when "nearly all information and disclosure documents are submitted." The EMMA and SHORT systems currently show that they are expected to perform at their highest level between 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Eastern on business days. The rule makes a change so that all three of the systems show their core operation hours are between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Additionally, many aspects of the three systems currently operate as 24/7 services. Users can submit disclosure documents to the EMMA and SHORT systems at any time, and brokers, dealers and municipal securities dealers have been able to view submitted trade data 24/7 since 2007. The rule revisions formally highlight those capabilities and also acknowledge that the self-regulator can make the services unavailable so it can perform site maintenance, as long as the maintenance is happening outside of core operation hours.
The rule change addresses three other issues. Users can currently request email alerts based on trade data reporting on EMMA, but the system doesn't reflect all the information a user can request. The MSRB change allows users to see the "full extent of the service." The two other changes make all references to time conventions consistent and correct a reference to the future ability of subscription products that have already been made available.
