Municipal Finance Professional (MFP) Exception
The rule carves out an exception for “municipal finance professionals” (MFPs) and “non-MFP executive officers” who live in a municipality and are entitled to vote for an official of the municipality. These individuals are allowed to contribute a de minimis amount, up to $250 per official per election. In contrast, MFPs who do not live in a municipality cannot give any amount if they or their firm wish to conduct municipal securities business with the municipality.
A municipal finance professional is any person who is primarily engaged in:
- • Underwriting, trading, or selling securities
- • Providing financial or investment advice or research
- • Any other activity that involves public communication with investors
- • Any executive or principal who supervises the above activities
Note that a non-MFP executive officer is an executive who does not supervise any municipal finance professionals. It should also be noted that representatives whose municipals securities activities are limited to retail sales to individual customers are not considered to be municipal finance professionals, and political contributions by these