On September 22, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises held a hearing entitled “Examining the Agenda of Regulators, SROs, and Standards-Setters for Accounting, Auditing, and Municipal Securities”. Members of the panel included Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Municipal Securities (OMS) Director Jessica Kane and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) Executive Director Lynnette Kelly. Members of the committee were primarily concerned with protecting issuers and the public from high costs and providing investors with transparency in the muni market. During the hearing, a number of representatives raised specific concerns, including Rep. David Sweikert (R-AZ), who raised concerns regarding “extraordinary legal fees” for state and local governments when refinancing bonds, and Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME), who raised concerns with “hidden costs” in negotiated sales as compared to competitive sales. Kane and Kelly continued to emphasize the progress made by their respective agencies in transparency and disclosure. They specifically mentioned the SEC’s MCDC Initiative and the MSRB’s proposed markup of disclosure rules.
The witnesses’ written testimonies and a recording of the hearing are available here.