Federal Register: SEC Requests Comments on MSRB Proposal to Extend Customer Complaint Rules to Municipal Advisors

The SEC requested comments on a MSRB proposal to: (i) modernize requirements for dealers’ handling of customer complaints; (ii) extend those requirements to municipal advisors; and (iii) extend existing guidance for dealers under MSRB Rule G-32 (on the use of electronic media to deliver to and receive information from customers) as relevant, to municipal advisors. The request for comments was published in the Federal Register.

More specifically, the proposal would:

• extend MSRB customer complaint recordkeeping requirements to all municipal advisors (i.e., non-solicitor and solicitor municipal advisors) as well as align those recordkeeping requirements more closely with the customer complaint recordkeeping requirements of other financial regulators;
• require that all regulated entities retain their customer or municipal advisory client complaint records for six years;
• overhaul Rule G-10 so that the rule would more closely focus on customer and municipal advisory client education and protection, as well as align that rule with customer education and protection rules of other financial regulators; and
• extend MSRB guidance under Rule G-32, Notice Regarding Electronic Delivery and Receipt of Information by Brokers, Dealers and Municipal Securities Dealers, to municipal advisors.

Comments on the proposal must be submitted by December 9, 2016.