MSRB Approves of Shortening Time Delay for Trade Reporting

In its quarterly Board of Directors meeting, the MSRB voted to approve rule amendments to shorten the time allowed for post-trade reporting.

MSRB Rule G-14 ("Reports of Sales or Purchases"), generally requires trade prices to be publicly reported within 15 minutes of the trade (see previous coverage). The amendments now seek to shorten the timeframe for trades to be reported to the MSRB from 15 minutes to "as soon as practicable, but no later than one minute, subject to certain exceptions for firms with limited trading volume in municipal securities and for manual trades."

The MSRB also agreed to seek SEC approval for an amendment to MSRB Rule G-12 ("Uniform Practice") to adopt requirements for the completion of allocations, confirmations and affirmations related to municipal securities transactions as part of its rulebook modernization and to align with newly adopted SEC Rule 15c6-2 ("Same-day allocation, confirmation, and affirmation") which facilitates compliance with the transition to T+1 settlement.

As noted in previous coverage, the proposed amendments to MSRB Rule G-12 would (i) "define regular-way settlement for municipal securities transactions as occurring one business day after the trade date" and (ii) align with recent SEC rule amendments to shorten the settlement cycle. The MSRB stated that the regular-way settlement cycles for municipal securities should be consistent with those for equity and corporate bond transactions.