SEC Issues Report on Transactions in Municipal Securities

Washington, DC, July 21, 2004 - The SEC's Office of Municipal Securities and Office of Economic Analysis recently completed a study of transactions in municipal securities and issued a report summarizing their findings.

Background
In 1994, municipal securities dealers began reporting inter-dealer transactions in municipal securities to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) and, in 1998, dealers began reporting trades with customers. The MSRB makes the transaction data, as well as summary information on these trades, available to subscribers. The SEC's report is a byproduct of these transaction reporting requirements which provide a wealth of information about transaction activity for all transactions in municipal securities between November 1999 and October 2000.

Among other things, the SEC's report provides important statistical information related to the size and characteristics of the municipal securities market, the types of securities traded, the dealers and other parties involved in the distribution process, and the various attributes of the municipal securities distributed.

The report finds that there were about 51,000 issuers with outstanding municipal securities and over 1,600 dealers traded municipal securities with customers. The median size of all municipal securities trades was $30,000 and most transaction activity was in a relatively small number of securities and in the securities of a relatively small number of issuers.

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