Rebecca Olsen leaving her post as director of the Office of Municipal Securities at the Securities and Exchange Commission is a challenge for the SEC, Commissioner Hester Peirce said Wednesday.
Olsen’s departure was
“One big challenge facing us now is that Rebecca Olsen, who's done such a wonderful job heading our Office of Municipal Securities, is going to be stepping down,” Peirce said.
“That's a big loss to me personally and to the commission,” Peirce added. “She's done a wonderful job during a pretty difficult period and with a small team but has really been fantastic. I think that will be an adjustment for all of us.”
Peirce didn't specify when exactly Olsen will leave but the USAJOBS posting is slated to close on Oct. 22.
Peirce also addressed the challenges of voluntary disclosures for municipal bonds, which has been complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing importance of environmental, social and governance factors to investors.
“I do think it's good to be able to get as much information out as quickly as possible and I really appreciate industry-led efforts to try to address that concern and to do so in a way that recognizes some of the unique challenges of the industry,” Peirce said. “Audited financials are still the gold standard but if you can do something in the meantime to get information out there, I think it's quite valuable.”
Technology has enabled muni issuers to share information faster, but there are still clear and present challenges to providing such disclosures.
“I think that that's one of the advantages that we have,” she added. “Information is much easier to come by because people can put it up very quickly and make it available to anyone who wants to access it.
“There are downsides of that too, because it means there's a lot of information floating out around there and as issuers you have to be thinking about that as well.”
Following the GFOA’s guidance on voluntary disclosures and the Commission’s own COVID-19 related guidance on pandemic related disclosures released last year, Peirce wants to encourage muni issuers to disclose more and to become more comfortable having more information out there.
“If you're trying to do things, trying to get information out there, we want to work with you,” Peirce said. “We think that's a good thing at the end of the day.”
She also encouraged participants to reach out to her directly when worried about certain disclosures or things generally that one may be unsure about.
“I just urge people when there are situations like that, or something where you think, 'Oh, it would be so useful for the SEC to be doing such and such,' come and talk to me,” she said. “You see things from a perspective that I don't have and it's really valuable for me to hear that directly from you.”
Peirce also mentioned that technological change represents one of the largest challenges the commission faces today.
“As with other markets, the technological changes are a bit of a challenge for us as a regulator, our rules are very much paper-based rules,” Peirce said. “We have been trying to keep up with those changes in the marketplace, but it is difficult.”
“The best thing we can do is have technology neutral rules, which really focus on the objective, which is to get as much information as we can as quickly as we can, as accurately as we can and enable them to trade in ways that are as cheap as possible,” she added. “And I think technology really enables both of those things.”
And the commission is working hard to make sure it’s “looking at technology as a benefit as opposed to a burden, which, sometimes we can be inclined to do because it does require us to sometimes rethink our rules,” Peirce said.
