Sifma's municipal division adds new officers; Shields elected chair

By Susanna Moon

Chicago, Nov. 2 - The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Sifma) said its municipal securities division elected new officers and members of its municipal executive steering committee.

Stratford Shields of Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC will be the division chair; Frank Fairman of Piper Jaffray & Co. and David Stephens of Bank of America Merrill Lynch will be vice-chairmen; and John Rolander of Fifth Third Securities, Inc. will be the treasurer.

Shields spent the past 16 years at Morgan Stanley, most recently as the head of the public finance division for five years until stepping down in September. Before working at Morgan Stanley, Shields was a vice president in the municipal group at Prudential Securities and was deputy director of the Ohio Office of Budget and Management and president of the State Controlling Board.

New additions to the municipal executive steering committee include Mike Bartolotta, vice chairman of First Southwest Co. and former board chairman of the Municipal Securities Rule Making Board, and Robert Baird, senior managing director at Raymond James Morgan Keegan.

Members of the municipal executive steering committee for 2013 include Robert Baird of Raymond James Morgan Keegan; Peter Bartlett of Citi Global Markets, Inc.; Michael Bartolotta of First Southwest Co.; Frank Fairma of Piper Jaffray & Co.; Kenneth Gibbs of Jefferies & Co., Inc.; Joe Hemphill of Regional Brokers Inc.; Peter Hill of Wells Fargo Securities LLC; James Lansing of JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Mark Mesinger of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.; Steve Milano of Barclays; John Rolander of Fifth Third Securities, Inc.; Suzanne Shank of Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. LLC; Stratford Shields of Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC; David Stephens of Bank of America Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.; and Ken Williams of Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.

"In the upcoming year, we expect there will be a significant number of regulatory and public policy issues that we will face as an industry," Shields said in a press release.

"On the regulatory front we will focus on the near term on the anticipated definition of a municipal advisor from the SEC as required by Dodd-Frank. Hopefully, given the unanimous passage of the Municipal Advisor bill sponsored by Congressman Bob Dold in the U.S. House of Representatives in September, the SEC has clear guidance on legislative intent so as not to try to include dealers functioning in their role as underwriters in the definition."

Division goals

The municipal securities division also outlined its priorities for the 2013 calendar year, which include the following:

• Preserving the federal tax exemption for municipal bonds;

• Ensuring a final municipal advisor rule from the SEC does not create a duplicate regulatory layer for market participants currently regulated;

• The recent SEC report on the structure of the municipal market;

• Finalizing the Volcker Rule and the definition of municipal securities within the rule;

• Municipal issuer disclosure; and

• Ensuring a fair and level playing field for all market participants, dealers, municipal advisors and investors.

"We look forward to working with our regulators on reaching actionable and consensus-driven plans to improve on execution and disclosure in the municipal market," Shields said.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.