A 4837 - October 9, 1998

A 4837 - October 9, 1998
P&S 4401

TO: ALL PARTICIPANTS

ATTENTION: MANAGING PARTNER/OFFICER, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS; OPERATIONS PARTNER/OFFICER, MANAGER DATA PROCESSING DEPARTMENT

SUBJECT: FILE AVAILABILITY FOR MUNICIPAL BOND EXECUTING BROKER SYMBOLS (EBS)

In order to facilitate the requirement for participants to include the EXECUTING BROKER SYMBOL(EBS) in their submission to NSCC, as required by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), NSCC will make available a new data file containing Municipal Bond Executing Broker symbols in Machine Readable Output (MRO) beginning on October 15, 1998.

( Product ID# 02030771 and Product Description: MUNICIPAL EXECUTED BY BROKER MASTER FILE). See attached Exhibits for file layouts.

In complying with the requirement to include Executing Broker Symbols on trade reports for both Interdealer and Customer Transactions the MSRB and participants requested that NSCC support the industry by providing an improved capability for identifying and reflecting executing brokers in municipal bond trades. NSCC coordinated efforts with the NASD and MSRB to provide this central and primary source of information to participants. The data will be updated and made available to participants daily.

NSCC must have the participants' EBS on file in order to make it available on the MRO. All Clearing Firms are reminded that they must also submit this information to NSCC for all their Correspondents effecting Municipal Bond trades.

The following NSCC Membership procedures must be followed when securing a Municipal Bond Executing Broker symbol:

NSCC participants must provide written instructions to the NSCC Membership department if:

The NSCC Participant requires a Municipal Symbol

The NSCC Participant wishes to change its existing Municipal Symbol

The NSCC Participant wishes to add a municipal symbol for a correspondent firm for which the NSCC Member ACTS AS PRIMARY CLEARING FIRM

The NSCC Participant requires a change to an existing symbol for a correspondent

The NSCC Participant's correspondent changes their name

The NSCC Participant desires to delete any reference to the symbol of a correspondent firm WHEN IT WILL NO LONGER PERFORM PRIMARY CLEARING ON THEIR BEHALF

These instructions must be submitted by the NSCC participant on Corporate Letterhead, include the following information and should be faxed to the Membership department at (212) 363-3120.

Complete Legal Name of the firm requiring the symbol

Complete Address of the corporate headquarters of the participant or Correspondent firm (please do not use branch office addresses)

CRD Number for the firm (if available)

Personal contact at the Member/Correspondent firm

Telephone number of the Personal Contact

If requesting a symbol for the first time, please provide three symbol choices, in order of preference.

Participants wishing to obtain this new file should contact NSCC Participants Services on (212) 412-8432.

Questions regarding this Important Notice can be directed to NSCC Participant Services, or the undersigned at (212) 412-8705.

Anthony Pietanza
Director, Marketing

Exhibit 1

File Name: Municipal Executed-by Broker Master File
AUTOROUTE #: 02030771 NOTE: AUTOROUTE STANDARD HEADER / TRAILER REQUIRED WITH THIS FILE Record Length: 80 Blocking Factor: File Type: Sequential File -- HEADER-- Revision Date: 6/4/1998
FIELD NAME	LENGTH	START	END	TYPE	COMMENTS
Record ID	1	1	1	A/N	H = header record
File Description	23	2	24	A/N	MUNI-EXEC-BY-BKR-MASTER
Processing Date	8	25	32	A/N	Format = MM/DD/YY
Future Use	1	33	33	A/N	Spaces
Y2K Processing Date	8	34	41	N	Format = CCYYMMDD
Future Use	29	42	80	A/N	Spaces

Exhibit 2

File Name: Municipal Executed-by Broker Master File
AUTOROUTE #: 02030771* --DETAIL-- Revision Date: 6/4/1998*
FIELD NAME	LENGTH	START	END	TYPE	COMMENTS
Record ID	1	1	1	A/N	D = detail record
Future Use	3	2	4	A/N	Spaces
Clearing Broker Number	4	5	8	N	NSCC Participant Number (clearing Number of clearing firm)
Clearing Broker Symbol	4	9	12	A	Municipal Clearing Symbol (Executing Symbol of clearing firm)
Executing Broker Name	50	13	62	A/N
Executing Broker Number	4	63	66	A	Municipal Executing Number (Participant Number of clearing firm)
Executing Broker Symbol	4	67	70	N	Municipal Executing Symbol
Future Use	10	71	80	A/N	Spaces

Exhibit 3

File Name: Municipal Executed-by Broker Master File
AUTOROUTE #: 02030771* -- TRAILER-- Revision Date: 6/4/1998*
FIELD NAME	LENGTH	START	END	TYPE	COMMENTS
Record ID	1	1	1	A/N	T = trailer record
Record Count	7	2	8	N	9,999,999
Future Use	72	9	80	A/N	Spaces