EMMA online to the rescue

The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday voted unanimously to propose measures to help investors find free and complete financial information about municipal bonds on the Internet. As it stands now retail investors have little access to such information without paying fees and must generally receive the information in paper form. The rule amendments proposed by the SEC would designate the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board of Alexandria, Va., as the central repository for ongoing disclosures by municipal issuers. Under a separate MSRB-proposed rule change, its Electronic Municipal Market Access system — known as EMMA — would make these disclosures available to investors for free on the Internet in the same way the SEC's Edgar system does for corporate disclosures. “These proposals would bring dramatic improvements in disclosure to investors in municipal securities,” SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said in a statement. “Retail investors — who own two-thirds of municipal securities — will soon have the same one-stop, cost-free, instant electronic access to disclosure documents about municipal bonds that they've long had for corporate stocks and bonds. This is a giant step forward for municipal bond investors,” he said.