The Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act required GAO to review several aspects of the municipal securities market, including the mechanisms for trading, price discovery, and price transparency. Accordingly, GAO has issued a report that report examines:

• municipal security trading in the secondary market and the factors that affect the prices investors receive, and
• the SEC’s and self- regulatory organizations’, or  SROs, enforcement of rules on fair pricing and timely reporting. For this work, GAO analyzed trade data, reviewed federal regulators’ programs for enforcing trading rules, and interviewed market participants and federal regulators.

GAO recommends that SEC collect and analyze information on SROs’ fixed-income regulatory programs on an ongoing basis to better inform its risk-based inspection approach. SEC agreed, but noted it would need additional resources to conduct more frequent oversight of the SROs

Check dodd-frank.com frequently for updates on the Dodd-Frank Act and other important securities law matters.