The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s (MSRB’s) revisions to its customer complaint and related recordkeeping rules. The MSRB has modernized the rules and extended their application to municipal advisors as follows:

• The MSRB extended its customer complaint recordkeeping requirements to all municipal advisors, including non-solicitor and solicitor municipal advisors. In addition, the MSRB amended Rule G-8 to require that municipal dealers and municipal advisors keep a standardized complaint log electronically using product and problem codes tailored for municipal securities. The MSRB also amended Rule G-8 to define “written” complaints to include complaints received electronically by the municipal dealer or municipal advisor.
• The MSRB revised Rule G-10 so that the rule more closely focuses on customer and municipal advisory client education and protection and aligns that rule with the customer education and customer protection rules of other financial regulators. Specifically, each municipal dealer and municipal advisor must provide each new customer or client with specified information upon opening an account and on an annual basis thereafter, including a statement that the municipal dealer or municipal advisor is registered with the SEC and the MSRB, the website address for the MSRB and a statement as to the availability of an investor brochure that is posted on the MSRB’s website.
• The MSRB also extended its guidance under Rule G-32 to municipal advisors relating to the electronic delivery and receipt of information.

The amendments will go into effect on October 13. More information is available here.