The Bond Buyer's Most Viewed Stories of 2015

1. Florida Prepares for State Government Shutdown | May 15.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has ordered state agencies to prepare lists of "critical state funding needs" in the event there is a government shutdown on July 1.

2. Morgan Stanley Fined $675K Over Muni Interest | April 10.
Two divisions of Morgan Stanley have been censured and ordered to pay $675,000 to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority charges that they misrepresented municipal bond interest paid to customers as tax-exempt, when it should have been taxable.

3. Hennion & Walsh Celebrates Municipal Milestone | January 22.
In the shadow of the biggest Wall Street empires, Hennion & Walsh has managed to thrive for a quarter of a century using the basic principle of providing value to its retail municipal bond customers through its attention to quality, not quantity.

4. Missing Fund Mystery Follows Firing at Bond Trustee | September 29.
More than $2 million missing from debt service reserve funds. A high-level employee fired from a top-ten municipal bond trustee. Angry investors asking where their money is.

5. No Success Like Failure: N.Y. Sees Social Impact Bond Pluses | July 2.
A New York City program aimed at cutting recidivism rates among Rikers Island adolescent prison inmates failed to meet its desired goal.

6. Morgan Stanley Cuts Hit Public Finance Operation | December 10.
Morgan Stanley is cutting 25% of its public finance team.

7. PR Gov.'s Comment on Default Called Financial Suicide | June 29.
Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla may have worsened relations with traditional municipal investors when he acknowledged long-standing concerns that the commonwealth cannot pay its $72 billion in municipal bond debts.

8. Prominent Muni Professional Killed in Metro-North Crash | February 4.
Eric Vandercar, an award-winning member of the municipal bond industry, was one of six people who died in Tuesday night's Metro-North accident.

9. 36 Underwriters to Pay $9.3M to Settle Under SEC MCDC Program | June 18.
Thirty-six municipal underwriters agreed to pay a total of $9.3 million and take remedial actions to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that they sold bonds with offering documents that contained false or misleading statements about the issuers' compliance with continuing disclosure obligations.

10. Chicago Report: City Almost $400 Million Underwater on Swaps | March 9.
Chicago is almost $400 million underwater on 24 swaps tied to $2.4 billion of floating-rate general obligation and revenue-backed paper, the city reports in a new disclosure.

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