The Securities and Exchange Commission has used a response to a no action request to signal that firms can use any independent pricing service in transactions between affiliated funds where no market quote is available. The SEC's letter said its intent was to provide "general guidance" on using a pricing service. The Nov. 20 letter also suggested using the Nasdaq Official Closing Price (NOCP).

The no action request came from Federated Investors, which wanted affiliated funds it advised to be able to trade municipal securities using a different pricing service than the one the SEC had previously permitted, FT Interactive Data. The SEC response said that Federated could use the service it wanted, Standard & Poor's Securities Valuations. Other services could also be used, said the SEC, so long as all the steps required in resorting to a pricing service were followed.