How to Obtain an Official Statement

Introduction

There is a wealth of information available to research municipal bonds. One resource with a plethora of information about a municipal bond issue is the Official Statement (OS). This can be used to become more familiar with the credit of a municipality (issuer). The OS includes such items as the purpose of the deal, the maturity schedule, the status of tax-exemption, sources of payment, debt service requirements, financial statements, and any other pertinent data. The underwriter / senior manager puts together the Official Statement for distribution to dealers, advisors, and investors. The OS is the disclosure notice for a municipal bond issue.

How-To

One might ask, "Where do I find Official Statements?" This brief process will explain the steps needed to retrieve an OS.

1. Go to the website http://www.investinginbonds.com (A picture of the webpage is shown below).

2. Under the Markets in Depth section, there is a subsection titled Municipal Markets. Click on the hyperlink: See Municipal Market At-A-Glance (The section of interest is highlighted in the picture below).

3. Next is a page where you can either select the bonds traded today category, the bonds traded yesterday category, or the bond history category. If you choose bonds traded today or bonds traded yesterday, go to 3A. If you want to enter a CUSIP into bond history, go to 3B.

a. By clicking on bonds traded today or bonds traded yesterday, the page following will show the history of municipal bond trades. In the example below, the State of Arizona was chosen to view bond trade history. You can select a particular bond in the history. On the right side of the page, there is a column labeled More Info. One of the links in this column is Statements (See 4A for further instructions).

b. If you know the CUSIP for the bond you are interested in, you can type it into the bond history box. The following page should show the actual bond and it's description. Click on the hyperlink below the column titled # of Trades.

This will take you to a screen shown below (See 4B for next step).


4. a. By clicking on the Statements link, the site will take you to a page where you can download the Official Statement for this particular issue. The user has an option t0 download the cover page, the entire OS, E-mail the document, or download part of the document. The picture below shows an example of what this page looks like.


b. If you click on the link for Search Munistatements.com, you will come to a page that allows you to download the Official Statement. The user has an option t0 download the cover page, the entire OS, E-mail the document, or download part of the document. The picture below shows an example of what this page looks like.


Conclusion

After the Official Statement is available for viewing, the next step is to research the particular issue. The following post will begin discussion of how to go about performing due diligence on a municipal bond issue beginning with deciphering the cover page of an OS.