MSRB Addresses Selective Disclosure

On September 13, 2017, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (the "MSRB") published a market advisory on selective disclosure (the "Notice"). The stated purpose of the Notice is to "increase awareness" of selective disclosure as a "market fairness" concern.  Although the Notice acknowledges that selective disclosure by issuers of, or conduit obligors on, municipal securities is not prohibited or "inherently problematic", the Notice cautions issuers and obligors in the municipal market not to selectively disclose material nonpublic information.

The Notice's bottom line is to urge that issuers of and obligors on municipal securities voluntarily disclose to the broader marketplace information that is potentially material and is being disclosed or has been disclosed to a subset of actual or potential bondholders "by a method or combination of methods that is reasonably designed to effect broad, non-exclusionary distribution of the information to the public",