WASHINGTON -- It wasn't as much of a step as had been expected.
Still, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's recent decision to try to improve communications with participants in the municipal bond market is a significant move in the right direction.
And there may be even more improvements around the comer.
When the 15-member board met in California's Napa Valley wine country 10 days ago, it adopted what MSRB chairman David C. Clapp called a "wide-ranging program of increased outreach to all market participants."
That includes plans to stan publishing an agenda before each board meeting, to hold regional information meetings with underwriters and issuers and other market participants to discuss emerging issues, and to brief the press shortly after each board meeting about the discussions and decisions made by the board.
Those are excellent moves and will help put some needed light on the board's operations and policies.
Publishing an agenda before each meeting will go a long way toward toning down justifiable criticism that the board meets in secrecy.
Holding regional meetings with market participants, particularly issuers, should produce the "meaningful consultation with public officials on important issues" that the Government Finance Officers Association and other groups have been rightfully requesting.
And briefing the press shortly after each meeting on both the discussions and the decisions made at the meetings will produce articles in financial newspapers and wire services that will keep every interested market participant informed.
The MSRB, however, did not make a decision whether to change its nearly 20-year-old closed-door meeting policy and open at least some of its quarterly deliberations to the public.
But the board did not rule it out either. "No one was really opposed to it. They just couldn't decide on the details and decided to look at what others do first," said Clapp, who is also a partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co.
"But I think the chances are good" that the board will open part of one of the two meetings the board holds in Washington each year, Clapp said.
The sooner the board opens part of its meetings to the public, the better. But taking its time to make sure the meetings are set up properly is wise.
For instance, the board needs to decide whether to allow the audience to participate in the meeting and, if it does, how to keep the meeting manageable.
But it also must make a conscious effort to ensure any public meetings are honest. It must avoid the sham that some regulatory agencies fall victim to of making decisions ahead of time and using open meetings to put on a show to announce decisions.
Once those details are hammered out, the MSRB needs to take the all-important step of opening its doors to the people it regulates.
