MSRB and BMA Partner to Make New Trading Data Available for Free
NEW YORK, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- The Municipal Securities Rulemaking
Board (MSRB) today announced it has begun making "real-time" pricing
information for all municipal bond trades available for the marketplace within
15 minutes of a trade. Previously, the MSRB, the self-regulatory organization
that makes rules for the municipal bond market, had disseminated price
information the day after a trade.
The Bond Market Association, which represents fixed-income broker-dealers,
jointly announced it will post the new MSRB data free of charge on its award
winning and redesigned website, http://www.investinginbonds.com, replacing the
"day after a trade" ("T+1") data it has carried since 2003.
"Real time pricing data, reported within 15 minutes of a trade, will make
sure investors have the most up-to-date information they need to make
investment decisions," said Christopher Taylor, executive director of the
MSRB. "Investors - indeed, all participants - can be confident that
transparency in pricing has been taken to the highest level in the municipal
bond marketplace."
"We are extremely pleased to be able to offer investors real-time
municipal bond pricing information," said Micah S. Green, BMA president. "The
Association has long supported transparency in the bond markets and, given the
retail nature of the municipal bond market - individuals directly own
one-third of the securities and mutual funds, which are largely retail, own
another third - we want to ensure that retail investors have access to the
data as quickly as possible, in a format they can easily use."
The move to real-time pricing culminates the MSRB's long-standing
commitment and decade-long effort to increase price transparency in the
municipal bond market. The MSRB implemented a limited transaction reporting
facility for the municipal securities market in 1995 and followed up with a
series of measured steps, all aimed at increasing transparency. By 2003, the
MSRB was making all trading data publicly available on a "day after the trade"
("T+1") basis.
The MSRB has always made its trading data available to any vendor, with no
restrictions on how the vendor chose to use the data. "Through the years, the
Board has been gratified that the Association has chosen to make our data
available to investors free of charge. It's a 'win' for everyone,
particularly the investor," said Mr. Taylor.
The Association's website, http://www.investinginbonds.com, which will
carry the free pricing information, is being substantially redesigned and
re-launched later this week, in part to accommodate the new data. Through a
searchable database, investors will be able to view municipal bonds by state,
credit rating or maturity. They can also view detailed information about a
particular security's insurance coverage, rating and call date, as well as its
daily high and low prices and its yield-to-maturity. In addition, investors
will be able to view the security's trading history and use an on-site
calculator to compare taxable and tax-free yields.
With the addition of real time municipal bond trading data, the redesigned
investinginbonds.com will feature price data for all three major bond
categories: municipal, corporate and US Treasury (Treasuries are available
with a one-hour delay). The availability of this data, on even a delayed
basis, has been popular: the site registered over 1.5 million visitors last
year and received an average of 4.5 million "hits" per month.
"Working together, regulators and dealers have made real-time transparency a
reality in the retail dominated municipal bond market, giving investors rapid
access to pricing data," said Mr. Green.
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) is a self-regulatory
organization created by Congress in 1975, to write rules regulating the
behavior of bank and securities firm dealers in the municipal securities
market. The Board is subject to oversight by the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), and its rules, once approved by the SEC, have the force and
effect of Federal law.
The Bond Market Association (BMA), with offices in New York, Washington,
D.C., and London, represents securities firms and banks that underwrite, trade
and sell debt securities and other financial products globally.
SOURCE The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board; The Bond
Market Association
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Related links:
http://www.bondmarkets.com
http://www.investinginbonds.com
CONTACT:
Don Cunningham, +1-202-530-4522, or Emily
Brunner, +1-646-637-9268, or Jon Teall, +1-646-637-9279, all of
The Bond Market Association
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