The Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) system, operated by the

Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) writes investor protection rules and other rules regulating broker-dealers and banks in the United States municipal securities market, including tax-exempt and taxable municipal bonds, municipal n ...

(MSRB), serves as the official source for municipal securities disclosures and related financial data in the United States. EMMA provides free on-line access to centralized new issue municipal securities disclosure documents (known as official statements), on-going continuing disclosures for all municipal securities, escrow deposit agreements for advance refundings (i.e., refinancings) of outstanding bonds, real-time municipal bond trade price information, interest rates and auction results for municipal auction rate securities (the first free source for this kind of information on the

auction rate securities An auction rate security (ARS) typically refers to a debt instrument (corporate or municipal bonds) with a long-term nominal maturity for which the interest rate is regularly reset through a Dutch auction. Since February 2008, most such auctions ...

market) and interest rate reset information for variable rate demand obligations, together with daily statistics on trading activity and investor education materials. EMMA's disclosure collection operates in coordination with the MSRB's investor protection rules mandating that securities firms and banks selling municipal securities to customers provide them with complete disclosure of all important information about the investment.MSRB Notice 2009-42
EMMA also is the central information utility through which municipal securities disclosures mandated by the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

(SEC) through its Rule 15c2-12 are made freely available to the general public. The EMMA continuing disclosure service provides access to audited financial statements, default notices, taxability notices, notices of rating changes, and approximately 30 additional categories of financial and other updates relating to municipal securities. The MSRB and SEC continue to work toward expanding the types and timeliness of disclosures available through EMMA.MSRB Seeks to Provide Investors With Additional Disclosure Information, July 15, 2009
Public access to the integrated collection of primary market and secondary market disclosure provided through EMMA parallels the centralized disclosure currently available for securities offerings by public companies through the SEC's

EDGAR Edgar is a commonly used English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Eadgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and '' gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the later medieval period; it was, however, r ...

system, although EMMA provides additional items of information beyond the base disclosures provided by EDGAR, such as trade prices, interest rates, market statistics and educational materials. The collection of disclosure documents available through EMMA for municipal securities is not identical to what is available through EDGAR for registered offerings of corporate or other securities since municipal securities and their state & local governmental issuers are afforded broad exemptions from most provisions of the federal securities laws (such as the

Securities Act of 1933 The Securities Act of 1933, also known as the 1933 Act, the Securities Act, the Truth in Securities Act, the Federal Securities Act, and the '33 Act, was enacted by the United States Congress on May 27, 1933, during the Great Depression and after ...

, the

Securities Exchange Act of 1934 The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (also called the Exchange Act, '34 Act, or 1934 Act) (, codified at et seq.) is a law governing the secondary trading of securities ( stocks, bonds, and debentures) in the United States of America. A land ...

and the

Investment Company Act of 1940 The Investment Company Act of 1940 (commonly referred to as the '40 Act) is an act of Congress which regulates investment funds. It was passed as a United States Public Law () on August 22, 1940, and is codified at . Along with the Securities Ex ...

) otherwise applicable to private-sector issuers of corporate and other types of securities.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://emma.msrb.org Financial regulation in the United States Local government finance