MSRB: No Attempts to Mandate Bank Loan Disclosure…For Now
August 2, 2016
Publications
Following its July 27-28, 2016 quarterly board meeting, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) has announced that it will not pursue new regulations to mandate disclosure of bank loan information by municipal securities issuers “at this time”. However, the MSRB continues to stress the importance of voluntary disclosure of information about bank loans, and is working to institute changes to its website Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) to make the process to disclose such information easier for issuers.
Municipal securities issuers should consult their legal counsel and financial advisor before making any voluntary disclosure of bank loan information through EMMA. Our advice on this topic over a year ago still rings true: there are significant issues in voluntarily disclosing such information, and municipal securities issuers may be opening themselves up to liability under the securities laws in connection with such disclosures where none previously existed.
Timothy J. Horstmann is a public finance attorney with the law firm of McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and advises municipalities, school districts and other public entities in connection with the issuance of taxable and tax-exempt bonds and notes. He can be reached at thorstmann@mcneeslaw.com.
