The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board of Directors has increased the number and percentage of minority- and women-owned business enterprises that will participate in the issuance of MTA bonds, approving a large group of firms that will underwrite the bonds used to finance the MTA capital program.

Twelve of the 35 selected firms, or 34 percent, are minority-owned or women-owned. Together, the 35 firms replace a group of 24 firms that were selected in December 2010 to underwrite MTA bonds for a three-year period. Out of that earlier group, six firms, or 25 percent, were minority-owned or women-owned.

“This large new group of bond underwriters not only expands the pool of expertise that we will turn to for help to more efficiently raise funds for our capital program,” said MTA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas F. Prendergast. “It also includes an even greater number of minority-owned and women-owned businesses engaging with us as we interact with global financial markets.”