| 15 July 2009

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted today to work on improving municpal bond disclosures. We've seen efforts to improve disclosures in the past and we can only hope they focus not only on visibility but also reasonable "readability for investors.
“Currently there is a disparity between the level of information available to investors in municipal securities versus information available to investors in corporate securities,” said SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro. “These proposals would help investors make more knowledgeable investment decisions about municipal securities, while at the same time enabling broker-dealers to satisfy their obligations with respect to municipal securities.”

Here are the key items they'll focus on:

• Expand the Rule to Cover Additional Municipal Securities
• Improve Disclosure of Tax Risk
• Strengthen and Expand Disclosure of Important Events
• Establish a More Specific Filing Deadline
• Proposed Additional Guidance