The Financial Data Transparency Act (FDTA) promises to change the way municipal bond issuers prepare financials and other continuing disclosures. While the content of financials and disclosures will remain the same, the FDTA calls for data to be submitted in structured, machine-readable format. This 1 ½ day workshop will address the implications for stakeholders: governments, municipal analysts and portfolio managers, data and analytics tool providers, and regulators.
Day 1 will focus on the needs of governments as issuers and obligors, and the organizations that support their disclosures, from the accounting and legal profession, to software providers.
Day 2 will consider the practical application of data standards to government reporting, addressing how digital data standards (taxonomies) are developed, and how data can be collected and disseminated by regulators. Both days will include brainstorming sessions among attendees to discuss and gather input about how to handle challenges that are unique to government entities and government reporting.
Attendees can earn 4 CPE in NASBA’s Accounting Field of Study (2 CPE each for Monday PM and Tuesday AM).
- Prerequisites: None
- Program Knowledge Level: Basic
- Advance Preparation: Be familiar with the Federal Data Transparency Act (2022)
- Program Format: Group Live
| Agenda – Day One | |
| 12:00 – 12:15 PM | Opening Remarks
Stephanie Leiser, Lecturer in Public Policy, University of Michigan; Chair, XBRL US Standard Government Reporting Working Group |
| 12:15 – 12:45 PM | Keynote Presentation:
Kyle Moffatt, Professional Practice Group leader, National Office, PwC US |
| 12:45 – 1:30 PM | Large Government Issuer Panel
Large government entities which may be general purpose or special districts, are more likely to have resources and sufficient staffing than small entities, but their financials may be more complex, and demands on their team may be greater. This session will present views from several large government reporting entities on how they work today, and how the FDTA could impact them in future. Find out about the challenges, and the potential benefits they expect. Speakers:
Moderated by Cornelia Chebinou, Washington Director, National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers, and Treasurers (NASACT) |
| 1:30 – 2:15 PM | Small Government Issuer Panel
Resource and staffing constraints are often challenges for small reporting entities. Small governments are more likely to be special districts, or entities that may have a bond issue once every five years, if that. Attend this session for an inside look at the challenges they face today, and a discussion of the pros and cons of structured data standards and the possibility of greater transparency they bring. Speakers:
Moderated by Mark Funkhouser, President, Funkhouser & Associates, former Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri |
| 2:15 – 2:45 PM | Break |
| 2:45 – 3:30 PM | Professional Services Panel
Accounting and legal firms have an important role in helping governments issue securities and manage ongoing disclosure requirements. Learn how these firms work with governments today and what they view as the potential wins and difficulties in transitioning to machine-readable financials and other disclosures. Will their role change? What can they do to make it easier for governments? Speakers:
Moderated by Emily Brock, Director, Federal Liaison Center, Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) |
| 3:30 – 4:30 PM | Federal and Research Data Use
Investors and analysts are not the only users of municipal financial data. Hear agency representatives from the U.S. Census and the U.S. Department of Education on how they use state and local data from financial statements, and grants reporting like the Single Audit. This session will also address requirements of the Grants Reporting Efficiency And Transparency (GREAT) Act which intersects with those of the FDTA for nonprofit and government entities. We will learn about an investigation into the GREAT Act implementation conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and discuss the Act’s future prospects. Speakers:
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| 4:30 – 5:00 PM | What Will the FDTA Municipal Rule Require?
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will prepare a rule proposal addressing FDTA requirements related to transparency in the municipal securities market and will give stakeholders the opportunity to comment. Like other proposals, it is likely to include: types of entities covered, potential for a phase in, timing, disclosure document requirements, and estimated costs. Historically standard have often met significant resistance. This session will address common challenges in standards adoption and discuss what the SEC may include in their rule proposal that stakeholders should start considering now. Speaker: Campbell Pryde, President, and CEO, XBRL US |
| 5:00 – 6:00 PM | Networking Reception |
| Agenda – Day Two | |
| 8:30 – 9:15 AM | Conversation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Municipal Securities, and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)
Join an open discussion about the implications of the FDTA on municipal bond issuers and other market participants. Speakers:
Moderated by Paula Stuart, CEO, DAC Bond |
| 9:15 – 10:00 AM | Case Study: Data Standards Development for Public Companies
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), as the accounting standard setter for public companies, is responsible for maintaining and developing the US GAAP Taxonomy which is used by 6000 companies every quarter when preparing their financial statements. This session will address how the taxonomy was developed, how it is updated to adapt to changes in accounting standards, and how companies transition each quarter. The FASB team will address how a single set of standards was able to accommodate different kinds of businesses, and the reporting of company-specific terms. Speakers:
Moderated by Campbell Pryde, President and CEO, XBRL US |
| 10:00 – 10:20 AM | Break |
| 10:20 – 10:50AM | Getting Started: Government Reporting Data Standards
The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) sets accounting standards for states and local governments. GASB is developing a GAAP taxonomy to assist in the implementation of electronic financial reporting for governments. Attend this session to learn about the unique challenges in developing standards for the municipal marketplace to support GAAP financial reporting including government wide financial statements, combining schedules, notes to financial statements (disclosures), and required supplementary information. Additional discussions are planned about handling different types of governments and the need for entity specific information, as well as changes in accounting standards over time. Speaker: Paulina Haro, Senior Project Manager, Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Moderated by Christine Kuglin, JD, CPA, LLM, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver |
| 10:50 – 11:35 | Investor and Analyst Panel
Portfolio managers, municipal analysts, and credit rating agencies will address the challenges with the current state of reporting, how access to information about municipalities could change with implementation of the FDTA, and the implications for municipal market participants. Speakers:
Moderated by Michelle Savage, Vice President Communication, XBRL US |
| 11:35 – 12:20 PM | Case Study: Regulatory Data Collection and Dissemination
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) collects thousands of structured, machine-readable financials from public companies and investment management companies every year. The reporting entities they oversee use taxonomies built by accounting standard setters like the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and taxonomies the SEC builds themselves. This session will explore the process of data collection and dissemination at the SEC and will address questions such as: How do the SEC make XBRL data available to the public? How does the SEC work with the FASB which is responsible for the taxonomy used by public companies? How are taxonomies built internally by the Commission for reporting information outside of the financial statements? How do vendors interface with the SEC and with the SEC Electronic Data Gathering and Retrieval (EDGAR) System to support the disclosure process? Insights gleaned during this session could help inform the process that municipal bond issuers may begin following in future. Speakers:
Moderated by Nikkyann Berteau, Disclosure Product Analyst, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. |
| 12:20 – 1:15 PM | Lunch
Lunch and
Break Sponsor |
| 1:15 – 2:00 PM | Navigating Municipal Bond Data in EMMA
The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) launched its Electronic Municipal Markets Access (EMMA) system in 2008. The freely available EMMA website contains comprehensive data and documents about municipal bonds that portfolio managers, analysts, and researchers use every day to find critical, market-moving information about securities under consideration or in which they invest. Passage of the FDTA offers a unique opportunity for the EMMA system to leverage structured, machine-readable municipal bond issuance data, improving the efficiency with which stakeholders can find and quickly consume data. This session will address who uses EMMA and how, the challenges they encounter and how access to more easily identified, machine-readable, structured data could change the usability of the EMMA system. Speakers:
Moderated by Marc Joffe, Federalism and State Policy Analyst, The Cato Institute |
| 2:00 – 2:45 PM | Artificial Intelligence and Government Data
Can AI be used to generate structured financial data from unstructured documents with a high degree of integrity? Can it assist governments to prepare structured data reports to comply with FDTA requirements? Will the availability of unambiguously understood, structured government data improve the reliability of machine learning and AI platforms? This session will showcase several projects that shed light on the possibilities of using AI to improve the efficiency of government reporting and analysis. Speakers:
Moderator by Campbell Pryde, President and CEO, XBRL US |
| 2:45 – 3:00 PM | Break |
| 3:00 – 4:30 PM | Breakout Sessions – Issuer Support, Non-ACFR Data, Technology, Identifiers
Attendees will break into groups for topic-specific discussions on how the market can support issuers, what data should be collected in machine-readable format, using technology to modernize and effective use of identifiers to support more efficient use of information. |
| 4:30 – 5:00 PM | Keynote Presentation:
Mark Funkhouser, President, Funkhouser & Associates, former Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri
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