At the National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA) annual conference in Las Vegas, Nutshell's Liz Sweeney joined a panel discussion called "Finally! The Data Revolution in The Municipal Market". Panelists discussed the myriad challenges municipal analysts face due to the wide variety of municipal credits and sectors, considerable number of security structures, lack of uniform disclosure standards, and lack of digital disclosure. Still, there are emerging signs of a data revolution in munis, led by advanced analytic techniques like artificial intelligence, machine learning, as well as the emergence of new products such as real-time economic indicators based on cell phone location data. Liz discussed the changing data landscape from the MSRB's perspective, including the board's observation of the growing use of data standards for reporting at all levels of government. While data standards don't currently apply to municipal securities, their growing use by other regulators such as the SEC, and the federal government's increasing interest in data transparency, are trends that the board is watching closely.
Panelists were:
Justin Land, Managing Director, Charles Schwab (Moderator)
Liz Sweeney, Board member, MSRB; President, Nutshell Associates, LLC
Triet Nguyen, VP Strategic Data Operations, DPC Data
Abhishek Lodha, VP Public Finance Product Development, Assured Guaranty