How Are Emerging Technologies Revolutionizing the Muni Market?

Technology innovation in muniland was on the minds of many participants at the National Association of Municipal Advisors annual conference, April 30-May 2 in Phoenix, Ariz. Municipal advisors and their issuer clients are navigating a rapidly changing environment with new technologies such as blockchain capturing the attention of market participants, changes in market structure due to the rapid growth of automated municipal bond trading, and many new tools available to enhance municipal advisor workflows. Panelists explored these topics in depth on the panel "Emerging Technologies in the Muni Market".

Liz Sweeney, President of Nutshell Associates and an MSRB board member, shared several ways that MSRB is enhancing its mandate to promote a fair and efficient municipal securities market through its free Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) platform. She shared that in 2026, MSRB will release a comprehensive upgrade to EMMA including natural language disclosure search, better user customization, and an enhanced obligor database. She also shared several tools already available in EMMA which municipal advisors can use in their daily workflows, including real time trade reporting and several municipal indexes and yield curves.

Jeff White, Managing Member of municipal advisory firm Columbia Capital Management gave a brief and engaging primer on blockchain, early use cases in municipal securities, and challenges for advisors to be aware of as they guide their issuer clients through the financing process.

Dan Silva, Founder & President of Adaje, discussed the core trends shaping technology in public finance, including the growth in data and tools; workflow automation; use of artificial intelligene and machine learning for analysis and forecasting; and more integrations and APIs. Then he discussed use cases in munis, such as smarter debt modeling, use of AI, and improvements in transparency and reporting.