There may not be a more difficult policy issue in securities law right now than the regulation of disclosures and capital raising by municipal issuers. It is evident that the pandemic will hit municipal issuers hard, both on the revenue side and on the expense side. While one is sympathetic to the needs of municipal governments to fund themselves, the SEC's statutory priority is to protect investors, not to help municipal entities borrow money.

Commissioner Peirce's remarks are well…

Proposed legislation that would provide consumer education to discourage investment in pandemic-related frauds seems reasonable. Reimbursing victims of pandemic fraud does not. If the government cannot reimburse every investor who is ripped off, why should it favor a particular class of victim?

The notion of trying to conduct experiments as to how different rules affect market quality is an attractive one. Perhaps the SEC can go back to the drawing board and find a better way to experiment.

In its comment letter, AIMA expressed skepticism on the value of the collected data. That sentiment is warranted. Rather than making incremental changes to the reporting requirements, the CFTC/NFA and SEC should assess whether there is any benefit in continuing, and, if so, on scaling back the requirements consistent with the value provided by the data.