State of California Treasurers Office website 2020 Highlights | January 22, 2021
"In November of 2020, the PFD sold $100 million of variable rate G.O. bonds to fund projects authorized by the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act approved by voters in 2014. Following the initial weekly interest rate period, the weekly interest rate for the bonds will be determined by the Clarity BidRate Alternative Trading System (Clarity). Clarity is an innovative electronic trading platform that enables a centralized marketplace for bidding, pricing, trading, and analyzing data for municipal variable rate securities. Investors of the bonds participate in a competitive bid process and are able to directly bid each week for the bonds. Bonds are then allocated to investors based on their bid level and the final clearing rate. Treasurer Ma strongly supports Clarity’s goals, which she has noted democratize the variable rate market by creating an investor controlled marketplace that maximizes transparency, leverages technology, and helps to promote a broader and deeper distribution of bonds, which could lead to improving overall the risk for issuers and investors alike. ..."