AP and Municipal Bond Information Services announce new municipal bond index

AP and Municipal Bond Information Services announce new municipal bond index

NEW YORK - The Associated Press and Municipal Bond Information Services, LLC (MBIS), a national consortium of municipal inter-dealer brokers, announce the creation of the AP Municipal Bond Index, a breakthrough service built on market data aggregated from the MBIS member firms.

The AP Municipal Bond Index will be the only benchmark based on observable, intraday pretrade and trade data and will be launched in the second half of 2016, with beta versions now available to limited market participants.

Andrew Kalotay & Associates has been engaged to build the index calculation engine.

Providing information and insight has always been part of the APs mission, said AP Vice President of Business Development Fernando Ferre. And the index we have built does just that: providing an objective, understandable snapshot of an important market to many consumer-level investors. Moreover, the AP newsroom gains another data point our journalists can use to cover the municipal bond market.

As regulators have noted, the currently available muni-bond benchmarks are based on subjectively based survey-driven methodologies, rather than independently aggregated market data and a rules-based system, said Ron Valinoti, MBIS chief. The AP Municipal Bond Index will bring much needed transparency to the muni market.

Evan Bergstrom, MBIS product manager, added, The underlying market data used to build our benchmark yield curve can be used by financial institutions to gain real insight into the municipal bond market activity and market direction.

Not only will the index support the professional muni-bond industry and address regulatory concerns, it will create a common touchstone for ordinary investors by providing intraday, objective snapshots of the market that haven't historically been available to the public.

The creation of the AP Municipal Bond Index and related data adds an important service to the APs growing suite of products catering to the consumer and professional investment communities, said Bruce Glover, AP director of business development, data and finance. The combination of MBIS market expertise with AP reporting has resulted in a widely beneficial service, increasing awareness and understanding of the municipal bond markets.

For further information, contact Brendon Paradis at MBIS: brendon@triangleparkcmd.com or Bruce Glover at AP: bglover@AP.org.

About AP

The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from AP. On the web: www.ap.org

About MBIS

Municipal Bond Information Services, LLC was formed in direct response to the concerns raised in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Report on the Municipal Securities Market of July 2012. Its products and services are designed to address deficiencies that are attributable, in part, to limited price transparency in the municipal bond markets.

The MBIS consortium brings together some of the largest brokerage services and alternative trading systems (ATS) in the municipal bond market, including:

Butler Muni, LLC

Hartfield, Titus & Donnelly, LLC

RW Smith and Associates

Regional Brokers, Inc

Sentinel Brokers Company, Inc.

Stark Municipal Brokers

Tradeweb Markets, LLC

Tradition Aisel (North America) Inc.

Tullett Prebon Financial Services, LLC

Ron Valinoti, founder of Triangle Park Capital Markets Data, an information services company, manages the business operations for MBIS Brokerage partners. More information can be found at www.mbis.com.

LINK:	http://www.ap.org/Content/Press-Release/2016/AP-and-Municipal-Bond-Inf...
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