MSRB's FY 2024 priorities include new regulations, EMMA updates

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will begin FY 2024 focused on market regulation with a new request for comment, improving data for the municipal securities market as it plans to move to a one-minute trade reporting window, and working to update its technology platforms.

The MSRB's FY 2023 concludes at the end of September, and will look to continue its implementation of the multi-year strategic plan, introduced in 2022 that will continue into 2025.

"We are continuing to modernize our rulebook and one of the things that we continue to focus on is making sure that we are harmonizing our rules to the extent that it makes sense with other regulators, so looking at what the SEC is doing, looking at what FINRA is doing," said Meredith Hathorn, chair of the board of directors for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

Hathorn said the board also plans to retire around 20% of its interpretive guidance which no longer applies. That is marked by its recent request for comment on Rule G-12, on uniform practice, that seeks to retire and reorganize 40 pieces of interpretive guidance. 

The board also plans to implement amendments to its Rule G-14, which changes the trade reporting window for dealers to a one-minute window. This update is being done in close coordination with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

"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," said Mark Kim, chief executive officer for the MSRB. "We don't want two different sets of rules going on the books."

Updates to technology and data are a key pillar of the board's strategic plan, and as such, the board continues its investments into the EMMA platform, and will complete its systems modernization efforts by 2025.

"At the end of our systems modernization project, we expect to launch a new EMMA for the marketplace," Kim said.

The MSRB will also welcome a handful of new board members for its FY 2024. Those coming on beginning Oct. 1 include Alexander Chilton, managing director and head of municipal securities at Morgan Stanley, Michael Craft, senior credit analyst at Genworth Financial, Pamela Frederick, chief financial officer and treasurer of the Battery Park City Authority, Wendell Gaertner, senior managing director of Public Resources Advisory Group and Christopher Kendall, managing director of fixed income trading at Charles Schwab.

Ernesto Lanza, formerly of the SEC and Ballard Spahr, returns to the MSRB as chief regulatory and policy officer.