About the 9

About the 9.85 Release

We’ve updated Mun-Ease to generate the new arbitrage 8038 tax forms. We also modified the input screens for the 8038 and 8038G forms so that Mun-Ease will automatically calculate the average remaining life of the refunded bonds.

We now allow the user to define which costs are to be included in the regular TIC calculation. Users define this option through the Settings | User Options window. Background: There is a current trend among underwriters to exclude credit enhancements from the regular TIC calculation. While we don’t necessarily agree with this trend, the user can now replicate his underwriter’s calculations with this option.

We’ve added a new menu option under the Sizing Menu. Users now have the option of sizing a bank note. Among the input options available to the user are the type of interest calculation (simple interest, U.S. rule, or bond rule) and the payment frequency (monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual). Odd stub and tail periods are also supported as well as balloon payments.

We’ve modified the debt service schedule report (#24c) to include an additional column that shows outstanding indebtedness. It will also show periodic disbursements of credit enhancements if that input option has been selected.

We’ve added a new input option to the single-issue millage impact report. You can input a prior-year surplus or deficit and Mun-Ease will decrease the beginning assessed value by this amount.

We’ve added a new option under the Arbitrage | Yield Tests menu. This option is called the “Recalc YTC Arbitrage Yield.” It enables the user to more easily test various call scenarios to determine which scenario has the lowest arbitrage yield when there are yield-to-call maturities within the bond issue.

We’ve modified the approach that we use to calculate the Arbitrage Yield Limit when there are deep discount term bonds. We also verified with the IRS that our approach is correct.

We’ve modified all arbitrage reports and data entry screens to display four-digit years.

We now automatically determine whether to calculate the the reoffering yield/price to the call date or maturity date based on the lower of the two figures. In prior releases, we required the user to set a maturity’s call switch if the yield/price was to be calculated as of the call date. Background: The MSRB requires that investors be quoted a yield that is the lower of the yield-to-call or yield-to-maturity.

We’ve expanded the size of the Fund ID and Group ID fields within the Arbitrage modules. The Fund ID field is now 8 characters long and the Group ID field is 8 digits long. All reports have been modified to accommodate the increased size of these fields. We also modified the Arbitrage outside transactions interface for this change (see below for new format). Background: Vendors of portfolio management systems requested this modification so that they could more easily interface their systems to ours.

Addendum - File format for Rebate Interface Files – As of Release 9.85

Lngth Cols Name of field

8 1-8 Issuer code

4 9-12 Dated Year

3 13-15 Bond suffix

1 16-16 Purpose/Nonpurpose; enter N or P

8 17-24 Group Id (numeric)

20 25-44 Description (alphanumeric)

8 45-52 Fund Id (alphanumeric)

12 53-64 Document Number (alphanumeric)

8 65-72 Pool percent (implicit 5 place decimal)

7 73-79 Investment IRR (implicit 5 place decimal)

6 80-85 Date of investment (mmddyy)

14 86-99 Amount (implicit 2 place decimal)

1 100-100 Sign of amount (either + or -)

10 101-110 Account number (numeric)

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