On May 6, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will begin offering a new aid to financial advisor clients who buy municipal bonds by introducing initial offering price and yields for new issues on its Electronic Municipal Market Access Web site, www.emma.msrb.org.
“This is a big enhancement for retail investors. Having both values will help with evaluating pricing on a new issue so that regardless of whether a bond was sold to an investor on a dollar price or yield basis, the comparable initial offering price may be displayed on EMMA,” said MSRB spokesperson Leah Szarek.
The data is expected to be available for a majority of municipal bond offerings. It is part of the regulator’s effort to make information on new issues consistent with the data dealers submit to the New Issue Dissemination Service.