Securities Litigation

On April 9, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (“MSRB”) filed with the SEC a temporary rule change that waived certain late fees and delayed some key compliance deadlines.

Municipal securities dealers and municipal advisors are required to inspect each office of supervisory jurisdiction annually and to conduct annual testing, review and executive-management certification of their systems of supervisory controls and compliance.  See MSRB Rules G-27(b)(vi), 27(f)(i) and G-44(d).  The rule change provides that those functions will be “deemed” timely completed for 2020 if actually completed not later than March 31, 2021.

The MSRB also delayed the compliance deadlines for certain qualification testing and certification due to the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on its contractor’s testing centers.  The rule change extends the deadline for municipal-advisor principal (Series 54) qualification until March 31, 2021.

The rule change was effective upon filing with SEC under ’34 Act § 19(b)(3)(A).

MSRB Notice 2020-09 is here.

Thomas K. Potter, III (tpotter@burr.com) is a partner in the Securities Litigation Practice Group at Burr & Forman, LLP. Tom is licensed in Tennessee, Texas, and Louisiana. He has over 34 years of experience representing financial institutions in litigation, regulatory and compliance matters. See attorney profile.