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[PRESS RELEASE] DPC DATA Announces New Research Findings on Municipal Disclosure Timeliness

Timeliness of municipal disclosures has improved, with most sectors now filing 180 days after fiscal year-end.

ROSELAND, N.J., November 13, 2019 — The issue of municipal disclosure continues to be at the forefront of market discussions. A new research report from DPC DATA Inc., (DPCDATA.COM), a leading provider of data solutions for the U.S. municipal bond market, shows the timeliness of municipal financial disclosure filings has been improving, albeit to varying degrees, depending on the sector.

Most importantly, as regulators push for greater transparency in the market through the MCDC initiative, DPC’s findings will be helpful to regulators in determining the effectiveness of compliance measures on a sector by sector basis.

“SEC Chair Jay Clayton has expressed concern about the current state of municipal disclosure practices. Our research, which is based on filing date data from EMMA that we’ve checked and validated, shows it took obligors 131 fewer days in 2018 to file financial statements compared to 2012,” says Ken Hoffman, DPC DATA President. “Hovering at 318 days back in 2012, filing timeliness has improved to 188 days in 2018.”

DPC DATA analyzed financial disclosures from 2012 to 2018 for 16 municipal bond sectors. These sectors included General Government, Higher Education, Solid Waste, Student Loans, and Housing. By 2018, 11 of the sectors had achieved the 180-day filing deadline. Other research highlights:

  • Only two sectors – Miscellaneous Education and Solid Waste – deviated from the 180-day norm. They most frequently used 270 days after fiscal year-end (FYE) as the filing deadline.
  • Municipal sectors showing the greatest improvement in disclosure timeliness are those related to structured financing (e.g., Student Loans or Housing) and tax-exempt enterprises which run like corporations (e.g., Healthcare).
  • General Government, one of the core municipal sectors, managed to shave off 169 days between 2012 and 2018. However, as of 2018, the sector had not met the 180-day deadline.

The complete research report is available on DPC DATA’s website.

New website offers disclosure filings resources

As part of the recent redesign and relaunch of its website, DPC DATA now offers a new Disclosure Filings page, which includes statistics for over 30 disclosure filings such as payment delinquencies, ratings changes, and other material events. “Our goal with the new site is to provide disclosure data and insights the industry values, as well as information about our offerings, in a streamlined, easy to navigate format,” notes Hoffman. The site makes it easy for compliance managers, muni dealers, portfolio managers, and financial advisors to learn more about DPC’s solutions for municipal disclosure, compliance, due diligence, and client communications.

About DPC DATA Inc.

DPC DATA has served the municipal bond marketplace with disclosure information and solutions since 1992. The company was a pioneer in developing solutions for the municipal securities lifecycle. Moreover, DPC was one of the original SEC-designated Nationally Recognized Municipal Securities Information Repositories (NRMSIRs). Today, DPC DATA helps clients who sell or manage fixed income products get the scrubbed, accurate, and actionable data they need, in streamlined workflows. This enables clients to manage risk, improve productivity, sell more, and avoid regulatory penalties.

DPC DATA products are used by more than 100,000 professionals at leading brokerage, clearing, and advisory firms. For more information about DPC DATA, visit www.DPCDATA.com.

DPC DATA’s MuniPOINTS helps firms comply with MSRB Rules G-17, G-19, and G-47 more easily. MuniPOINTS condenses “just the facts” into an easy-to-read brief that streamlines the user’s municipal bond disclosure compliance and sales processes. The most popular DPC DATA information product, MuniPOINTS documents are concise, descriptive summaries of municipal bond issues. Indexed by CUSIP, they include bullet-pointed text, excerpted directly from the official statements, with no analytic content. In addition, a click-through feature provides links to all underlying disclosure documents via MuniDOCSOnline, as well as the latest news related to the bond on MuniGUARD News.

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