Stephanie Leiser, Lecturer in Public Policy, University of Michigan; Chair, XBRL US Standard Government Reporting Working Group

Kyle Moffatt, Professional Practice Group leader, National Office, PwC US

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will prepare a rule proposal addressing FDTA requirements related to transparency in the municipal securities market and will give stakeholders the opportunity to comment. Like other proposals, it is likely to include: types of entities covered, potential for a phase in, timing, disclosure document requirements, and estimated costs. Attend this session to review potential proposal topics which will provide the framework for discussions throughout the day and a half conference.

Speaker: Campbell Pryde, President, and CEO, XBRL US

Large government entities which may be general purpose or special districts, are more likely to have resources and staffing than small entities, but their financials may be more complex, and demands on their team may be greater. This session will present views from several large government reporting entities on how they work today, and how the FDTA could impact them in future. Find out about the challenges, and the potential benefits they expect.

Speakers:

• James Baker, Controller, Virginia Housing
• Megan Kilgore, elected City Auditor of Columbus, Ohio

Moderated by Cornelia Chebinou, Washington Director, National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers, and Treasurers (NASACT)

Resource and staffing constraints are often challenges for small reporting entities. Small governments are more likely to be special districts, or entities that may have a bond issue once every five years, if that. Attend this session for an inside look at the challenges they face today, and a discussion of the pros and cons of structured data standards and the possibility of greater transparency they bring.

Speakers:

• Mark Funkhouser, President, Funkhouser & Associates, former Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri

Accounting and legal firms have an important role in helping governments issue securities and manage ongoing disclosure requirements. Learn how these firms work with governments today and what they view as the potential wins and difficulties in transitioning to machine-readable financials and other disclosures. Will their role change? What can they do to make it easier for governments?

Speakers:

• Eric S. Berman, MSA, CPA, CGMA, Eide Bailly LLP
• Carol J. McCoog, Partner, Hawkins Delafield & Wood LLP; President, National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL)

Moderated by Emily Brock, Director, Federal Liaison Center, Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA)

Attendees will break into groups for brainstorming and discussion about how to balance the needs of different types of government entities and other municipal market players. Individual group findings will be collected and presented to all attendees.

Data standards that are open, nonproprietary and widely used are most effective at supporting technology standardization particularly those adopted by regulators. The ability to use data standards through open-source and commercial tools is just as critical to ensure low cost, innovation and standards that adapt to change over time. This session will address the importance of a competitive marketplace of tools.

Join an open discussion about the implications of the FDTA on municipal bond issuers and other market participants.

Speakers:

• Joel Black, Chair, Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)
• Dave A. Sanchez, Director of the Office of Municipal Securities, Securities and Exchange Commission

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), as the accounting standard setter for public companies, is responsible for maintaining and developing the US GAAP Taxonomy which is used by 6000 companies every quarter when preparing their financial statements. This session will address how the taxonomy was developed, how it is updated to adapt to changes in accounting standards, and how companies transition each quarter. The FASB Chief of Taxonomy Development will address how a single set of standards was able to accommodate different kinds of businesses, and the reporting of company-specific terms.

Speakers:

• Louis Matherne, Chief of Taxonomy Development, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
• Donna Johaneman, Project Manager XBRL – FASB, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
• David Shaw, Senior Project Manager, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) sets accounting standards for states and local governments. GASB is developing a GAAP taxonomy to assist in the implementation of electronic financial reporting for governments. Attend this session to learn about the unique challenges in developing standards for the municipal marketplace to support GAAP financial reporting including government wide financial statements, combining schedules, notes to financial statements (disclosures), required supplementary information. Additional discussions are planned about handling different types of governments, the need for entity specific information, as well as changes in accounting standards over time.

Speaker: Paulina Haro, Senior Project Manager, Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)

Moderated by Christine Kuglin, JD, CPA, LLM, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver

Portfolio managers, municipal analysts, and credit rating agencies will address the challenges with the current state of reporting, and how access to information about municipalities could change with implementation, and the implications for municipal market participants.

Speakers:

• Liz Sweeney, President, Nutshell Associates, LLC

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) collects thousands of structured, machine-readable financials from public companies and investment management companies every year. The reporting entities they oversee use taxonomies built by accounting standard setters like the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and taxonomies the SEC builds themselves. This session will explore the process of data collection and dissemination at the SEC and will address questions such as:

How do the SEC make XBRL data available to the public? How does the SEC work with the FASB which is responsible for the taxonomy used by public companies? How are taxonomies built internally by the Commission for reporting information outside of the financial statements? How do vendors interface with the SEC and with the SEC Electronic Data Gathering and Retrieval (EDGAR) System to support the disclosure process?  Insights gleaned during this session could help inform the process that government may begin following in future.

Speakers:

• Robert E. Luby, Accountant, Securities and Exchange Commission
• Julie Marlowe, Assistant Director of the Office of Structured Disclosure in the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) launched its Electronic Municipal Markets Access (EMMA) system in 2008. The freely available EMMA website contains comprehensive data and documents about municipal bonds that portfolio managers, analysts, and researchers use every day to find critical, market-moving information about securities under consideration or in which they invest. The passage of the Financial Data Transparency Act (FDTA) offers a unique opportunity for the EMMA system to leverage structured, machine-readable municipal bond issuance data, improving the efficiency with which stakeholders can find and quickly consume data. This session will address who uses EMMA and how, the challenges they encounter and how access to more easily identified, machine-structured could change the usability of the EMMA system.

Speakers:

• Lisa Olsen, Executive Vice President, Digital Assurance Certification (DAC Bond)
• Triet M. Nguyen, CFA-ESG, Vice-President, Strategic Data Operations, DPCDATA

Attendees will break into groups for discussion about how to leverage data standards and technology to address the needs of issuers and data users, efficiently and effectively. How can AI be used? How can the taxonomy be structured to address all stakeholder needs? What are the transition challenges faced by issuers? Attendees will reconvene to present their findings.

Requirements under the GREAT Act intersect with those of the FDTA for nonprofit and government entities. The FDTA apppears to be moving forward towards implementation much faster than the GREAT Act, which was signed into law in 2019. What is the status of the GREAT Act today, and how might it unfold in future, particularly with FDTA up ahead.