SEC Chairman Jay Clayton and the SEC Director of the Office of Municipal Securities Rebecca Olsen, published a joint public statement on The Importance of Disclosure for our Municipal Markets, with a subheading “The Effects of COVID-19 Have Raised Uncertainties Regarding the Financial Status of State and Local Governments and Special Purpose Entities; Municipal Securities Issuers are Encouraged to Provide Updated Financial and Other Disclosures; Financial Professionals are Encouraged to Discuss These Matters With Main Street Investors.”
The public statement emphasizes the importance of timely municipal disclosures about the government itself, as well as the securities of the governments, noting: “The SEC’s focus on this issue has intensified in the past several years as we, together with our colleagues in the Office of Municipal Securities, have frequently called on municipal issuers to provide investors with more timely information, and also generally raised awareness about the importance of investor access to current financial information.”
This statement reinforces the value of the benefits that data standards can bring to improve the timeliness and consistency of data from state and local governments.
Read the full text.
