WASHINGTON -- The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans to host a meeting with several bond market participant groups in early January to discuss current developments in the municipal market.
At the same time, the Public Securities Association and the National Association of Bond Lawyers are planning to hold seminars during the next few weeks to discuss whatever secondary market disclosure requirements the Securities and Exchange Commission adopts for the municipal market.
The PSA and NABL revealed their plans as SEC chairman Arthur Levitt said yesterday that SEC commissioners are expected to take up the staff's recommended final secondary market disclosure requirements at a meeting scheduled for next Thursday.
The SEC is also expected to discuss the need to improve price transparency in the municipal market, Levitt said.
The MSRB sent letters recently to bond market groups inviting them to attend a municipal bond "Forum" at its offices on Jan. 4.
"You and one or two of your colleagues are invited to attend and to share ... your views and concerns about current developments in the municipal securities markets," Christopher Taylor, the MSRB's executive director, said in Oct. 20 letters sent to the PSA, NABL, and the Government Finance Officers Association.
The meeting will begin with a discussion of recent SEC actions but will also cover key bond issues under consideration by each of the market groups attending, Taylor said in letters that were also sent to the National Association of State Treasurers, the American Bar Association, and other groups.
Taylor said this is the third such meeting that has been held by the board or other market groups in recent years. He reminded the market groups in the letter that the board is always willing to meet with them. The MSRB is also holding a series of educational seminars each quarter that are open to anyone who wishes to attend, he said.
In another development, the PSA said in its newsletter to members that it will hold a one-day conference on Dec. 8 in New York City to consider the "sweeping new rules" on secondary market disclosure that the SEC is expected to soon adopt.
The PSA is still putting together the list of speakers and the agenda for the conference, association staff officials said.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Bond Lawyers decided at a board meeting in Woodstock, VI., last week to hold a one-day seminar on disclosure in mid-January.
The seminar will probably be held in Dallas or possibly Atlanta, the lawyers said. The NABL is forming a committee that will put together the agenda for the seminar, they said.
