Andrew Ackerman

WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit grew faster than economists anticipated in August, rising $3.7 billion to a 22-month high of $46.3 billion, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit grew in August, rising a greater-than-expected $3.7 billion to $46.3 billion, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

WASHINGTON — As the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board begins to regulate an anxious and skeptical non-dealer advisory community, its new chairman, Michael Bartolotta of Dallas-based First Southwest Co., the largest dealer-advisory firm in the nation, is stressing that the MSRB’s rules will be fair to all regulated market participants.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday that it has signed off on a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposal to post ratings directly onto the board’s EMMA site.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has hired Karen Du Brul as an associate general counsel to work on the rulemaking and policy team as it begins to write rules for muni advisers.

DETROIT — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s executive director on Friday tried to allay some of the concerns nondealer financial advisers have about the regulatory burdens they may face under MSRB oversight.

DETROIT — Independent financial ­advisers meeting here Thursday questioned the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Martha Mahan Haines about which advisers must register with the SEC under the new regulatory reform law, while Haines announced that the agency will hold its next field hearing on munis in Chicago on Nov. 16.

WASHINGTON — The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is set to kick off a series of public hearings next week on its preliminary draft pension-fund accounting and financial reporting standards that are designed to boost the disclosure of public pension liabilities but are proving to be controversial.

WASHINGTON — Market participants are sharply divided on the Municipal Securities ­Rulemaking Board’s draft proposal to prohibit dealers from underwriting new negotiated or competitive bond issues if they served as the issuer’s financial adviser on the transaction.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced the members of its new, majority-public board Friday, hours after it proposed a series of large fee increases to defray the technology costs for its EMMA site as well as expenses tied to the regulation of municipal advisers under the Dodd-Frank Act.

WASHINGTON — The author of a seminal primer on municipal securities regulation, along with an attorney who successfully argued for Kentucky in the landmark Supreme Court case on states' preferential tax treatment, are among the 11 new members of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday signed off on rule changes that make the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board a majority-public self-regulator and allow it to temporarily expand to 21 from 15 members beginning Friday, the start of its new fiscal year.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to launch its new office of municipal securities by the end of October, chairman Mary Schapiro said in prepared testimony presented to the Senate Banking Committee Thursday.

WASHINGTON — Initial jobless claims fell 16,000 to 453,000 filings the week ending Sept. 25 from 469,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Continuing claims fell 83,000 to 4.457 million in the week ending Sept. 18.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to launch its new office of municipal securities by the end of October, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro plans to tell the Senate Banking Committee this morning.

WASHINGTON -- Initial jobless claims fell 16,000 to 453,000 for the week ending Sept. 25, from a revised 469,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported today.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission has quietly hired the head-hunting firm Korn/Ferry ­International to find candidates to lead a new municipal securities office that will have a higher stature within the SEC.

Regulators’ heightened concern for retail investors in the muni market was on display Tuesday when a top Financial Industry Regulatory Authority official posed an alarming scenario to industry representatives in New York.

WASHINGTON — Cook County, Ill., officials say while they are striving to improve the timeliness of their secondary market disclosures, the process of coordinating financial information among different offices and departments is both challenging and time consuming.

WASHINGTON — The combination of having at least three of the proposed 10 “industry” seats on its expanded board dedicated to nondealer muni advisers, along with the establishment of a council of advisers to bounce ideas off the board, will ensure that advisers are fairly regulated beginning Oct. 1, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is insisting.