Council to explore centralized mailbox - In the News - the Municipal Council is considering establishing a centralized mailbox for bond issuers to file their disclosure statements - Brief Article

Healthcare Financial Management, Dec, 2002

The Municipal Council, an advisory body made up of leading industry groups including HFMA, will draft a request for costs and specifications information for the possible establishment of a centralized mailbox where bond issuers could file their disclosure documents. The formation of the Municipal Council was prompted by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) to work on long-range disclosure initiatives that will lead to an "ideal" disclosure system.

To ease access to disclosure documents, The Bond Market Association (TBMA), New York, New York, has developed a cover sheet for issuers to voluntarily include with their filings that will contain Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures (CUSIP) numbers. This sheet will help ensure that the documents are correctly labeled and filed by the disclosure repositories. The CUSIP Service Bureau, operated by Standard & Poor's for the Washington, D.C.-based American Bankers Association, administers the unique nine-digit CUSIP identifiers to the issuers of securities. To view the TBMA's cover sheet, go to http://www.bondmarkets.com/regulatory/Generic_Cover_Sheet_and_Instruc tions.pdf.