Name Not Public

May 20, 1997

A
Counsel for Firm X
Address

RE: Firm X MSRB Rule G-37 Request

Dear A:

The Fixed Income Committee has reviewed your client's appeal for exemptive relief and has determined, based on various mitigating factors, to grant your client a conditional exemption consisting of a reduced prohibition period of one year beginning from the date of the second contribution to July 9, 1997.

The Committee determined that B's second contribution was a violation of MSRB G-37 (the Rule) because, when consolidated with the first contribution, the total was $480. This significantly exceeded the $250 de minimis contribution exemption in the Rule.

The Committee found, however, that mitigating factors contained in your client's appeal distinguished the contribution made by B from the contributions seen in other exemptive requests before the Committee. The Committee found that the second contribution at issue resulted from human error rather than from insufficient compliance procedures, failure by the firm to educate key personnel, or ignorance by firm personnel of the Rule. The Committee considered other relevant mitigating factors to be that B was knowledgeable of the Rule's requirements, had developed and instituted procedures that were reasonably designed to ensure compliance with the Rule, and did follow his/her firm's pre-screening compliance procedures by submitting a second request that, were it not for administrative error evidenced by the designated supervisory principal, would have prevented the inadvertent second contribution.

If you have any questions please contact John H. Pilcher, at (202) 728-8287.

Very truly yours,

Alden S. Adkins