GFOA Executive Board approves new best practices.

• Position: News & Numbers - Government Finance Officers Association

On September 25, 2015, GFOA's Executive Board approved five new best practices and seven revised best practices, providing recommendations to government finance officers in the areas of accounting, budget, retirement benefits administration, capital planning, and debt issuance.

Understanding Your Continuing Disclosure Responsibilities. The Committee on Governmental Debt Management updated this best practice to alert issuers to the increasing attention of federal policymakers and investor advocacy organizations on improving disclosure for government bond issuers. The updated best practice emphasizes specific areas for issuers to make improvements in based on the SEC's 2014 Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative (MCDC), as well as separate SEC enforcement cases, such as the 2013 case against the City of Harrisburg, PA and the 2014 Allen Park, MI case. The GFOA is firmly committed to helping issuers understand and meet their federal continuing disclosure obligations, and has updated this best practice to further that effort.

Using Technology for Disclosure. Beyond updating this best practice to increase issuer awareness of federal regulatory efforts to improve issuer disclosure, the Debt Committee also wanted to alert issuers to improved uses of not only issuer websites, but also new features on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's (MSRB) Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) system, which enables issuers to improve the flow of disclosure information to investors. Updates were also made to this best practice to advise issuers on concerns about using other digital communication platforms (such as social media) to transmit disclosure information to investors.

Using Credit Rating Agencies. The Debt Committee developed this new best practice to provide guidance to governments about how to select and manage credit rating agencies. The best practice was organized to help finance officers navigate the ever changing landscape of credit rating methodologies; alert governments to the key factors they should consider in hiring one or multiple rating agencies; describe the types of debt issues that may benefit from obtaining a credit rating and what an issuer should be prepared to do to maintain a credit rating; and provide guidance on terminating a relationship with a rating agency.

Defined Contribution Plan Fiduciary Responsibility. Recognizing many governments offer defined contribution retirement plans as a supplement...