The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to hire a senior municipal securities market specialist to work in its Division of Enforcement’s Public Finance Abuse Unit, a role that will include gathering information about primary offerings of municipal securities and about secondary market trading.
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“Come work at the SEC!,” Rebecca Olsen, deputy chief of the Public Finance Abuse Unit, said in a LinkedIn post last week, adding that “The position is open in Washington, D.C. or any SEC regional office, including New York City.”
Applications to join what Olsen described in her post as “our dedicated and talented team focused on the municipal securities market” must be received by Aug. 18, she noted. A job announcement posted on USAJOBs listed a salary range of $190,899 to $292,300 per year. A job announcement heading regarding pay scale and grade described the position as “SK 16.”
“SK 16 is the highest non-supervisory position at the SEC,” said Peter Chan, a partner at law firm Baker McKenzie, who earlier in his career served as assistant regional director in the SEC’s Chicago Regional Office and was the architect of the SEC’s Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative – or MCDC for short, adding that role isn’t an “entry level position.”
The job announcement listed a variety of duties for which the senior municipal securities market specialist will have responsibility. Those duties will include gathering information regarding “primary offerings of municipal securities including disclosure documents, initial offering price information, and relevant municipal securities market data used to structure and price…,” the job announcement said.
Also as part of the role, the person hired will be responsible for gathering information concerning “continuing disclosure and secondary market trading for municipal securities, including relevant municipal securities market data used to price purchases and sales of municipal securities,” the announcement said.
The individual will also be responsible for analyzing “both primary market pricing and secondary market pricing to detect potential securities law violations,” according to the announcement, which listed several other duties as well.
Since the establishment of the PFAU, which used to be known as the Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit, it has always been part of the specialty unit’s strategy “to have non-attorney, industry specialists” to assist and support the unit’s enforcement attorneys on cases, Chan said, adding, however, that it doesn’t mean the person hired couldn’t also be an attorney.
Chan also noted the SEC’s announcement of last month regarding the creation of its Retail Fraud Working Group, which is designed to strengthen the enforcement division’s efforts to identify and combat fraud targeting everyday investors.
The description of the senior municipal securities market specialist’s duties “is yet another key data point” that signals where the PFAU is going to apply its resources,” Chan said, adding that it indicates the unit will be focused on protecting municipal issuers and retail investors from “abusive or conflicted pricing and trading practices.”
When it comes to the role of the specialist, “part of her job or his job is going to be looking into pricing practices both from the perspective of … is the price and structure beneficial to the issuers, Chan said, “and then at the same time, look at the secondary trading and say are retail investors that [are] ultimately left holding these securities getting the correct type of investment, and, importantly, the best price.”
