Municipal Advisors’ Registration with SEC to be made Mandatory
Registration of municipal advisors is now being made mandatory by the Securities and Exchange Commission in line with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. In addition, registration with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) will also be made necessary.
The definition of a municipal advisor includes financial advisors, guaranteed investment contract brokers, third-party marketers, placement agents, solicitors, finders, and certain swap advisors that provide municipal advisory services.
The proposed rule would require the following forms to be submitted for various proceedings:
- Form MA to register a municipal advisory firm
- Form MA-I to register an individual municipal advisor.
- Form MA-W if the said firm or individual wants to withdraw registration.
- A non-resident municipal advisory firm (and any non-resident general partner or managing agent of a municipal advisory firm) to submit Form MA-NR in order to appoint an agent for service of process.
(Municipal advisors would also be required to provide disciplinary history information and update it regularly.)
In recent times, the SEC has been engaged in significant rulemaking with emphasis on the following aspects:
- Strengthening oversight of investment advisers
- Security-based swap reporting and dissemination
- Security-based swap data repositories
- Security-based swap fraud
- Security-based swap conflict
- Reporting of pre-enactment security-based swaps
- Asset-backed securities
- Whistleblower (constitutes a program and a set of rules aimed at encouraging individuals to provide the SEC with high-quality tips that lead to successful enforcement actions.)
- Pay-on-Pay (includes a set of rules that would enable shareholders to cast advisory votes on executive compensation and "golden parachute" arrangements.)
- Specialized disclosures (covers rules requiring new disclosures about mine safety, conflict minerals from the Congo, and payments to governments by the extractive industry.)
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