Andrew Ackerman

WASHINGTON — House conferees debating financial regulatory reform legislation today are expected to vote on amendments that would require the Securities and Exchange Commission to register and regulate municipal financial advisers, replacing Senate language that would give such regulatory authority to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

WASHINGTON — Municipal market regulatory issues will not be studied for up to two years under changes to the base legislation Senate and House conferees are using to reconcile their competing legislative proposals to overhaul financial regulations.

WASHINGTON — Initial jobless claims fell to 456,000 for the week ending June 5, the third straight decrease, the Labor Department reported yesterday.

WASHINGTON – Initial jobless claims fell to 453,000 for the week ending June 5, the third straight decrease, as the four-week average increased for the fifth consecutive week, the Labor Department reported today.

ATLANTA — Dealers are calling for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to revise and clarify several aspects of draft interpretive guidance that outlines the steps they must take to ensure the prices they charge customers when buying and selling municipal securities are fair and reasonable.

The Government Finance Officers Association approved policy statements Tuesday calling on the Governmental Accounting Standards Board not to move forward with its “fiscal sustainability” project and for the Securities and Exchange Commission to scrap plans to consider requiring floating net asset values for shares of money market funds.

ATLANTA — Government Finance Officers Association members are scheduled to vote this morning on a policy statement calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to maintain a stable, $1.00 net asset value per share of money market funds and to scrap plans to consider a floating NAV.

ATLANTA — The Government Finance Officers Association’s debt committee Saturday agreed to update a best practices document on the pricing of bonds in a negotiated sale.

WASHINGTON — With lawmakers from both chambers of Congress set to begin hammering out a single financial regulatory reform bill on Wednesday, one of the most contentious municipal-market issues to be worked out centers on who will regulate non-dealer financial advisers, swap advisers and other market intermediaries.

WASHINGTON — Internal Revenue Service officials Thursday said that there are no plans to audit up to half of all Build America Bond deals, backing away from remarks they made last week.

WASHINGTON — Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffett warned a panel investigating the causes of the financial crisis Wednesday that states and localities may face “terrible” financial distress in the next five to 10 years that in turn could lead some to look to the federal government for bailouts.

WASHINGTON — Initial jobless claims fell to 460,000 for the week ending May 22, just above economists’ estimates and the second highest level in over a month, the Labor Department reported yesterday.

WASHINGTON – Initial jobless claims fell to 460,000 for the week ending May 22, just above economists' estimates and the second highest level in over a month, the Labor Department reported this morning.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday unanimously approved amendments to its Rule 15c2-12 on disclosure that, like the ones proposed in July, will increase the quantity and timeliness of municipal issuers’ continuing disclosures.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to approve changes to its Rule 15c2-12 on disclosure this morning that appear largely unchanged from the proposal originally floated last July to increase the quantity and timeliness of continuing disclosures.

WASHINGTON — As the two chambers of Congress begin to hammer out a single financial regulatory reform bill over the next several weeks, industry groups have mixed views about a provision in the Senate bill that would prohibit banks from engaging in proprietary trading but exclude municipal, Treasury and federal agency securities from the ban.

WASHINGTON — As lawmakers in the Senate and House begin to resolve the differences in their separate financial regulatory reform bills this week, market participants are hoping the finished product will exclude several controversial provisions they say could eliminate the municipal derivatives market.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board yesterday filed a request with the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow it to post credit ratings directly on the board’s Electronic Municipal Market Access site.

WASHINGTON — A fourth market participant, Mark Zaino, has pleaded guilty to participating in bid-rigging and fraud conspiracies in connection with municipal investment contracts and derivatives, the Justice Department announced yesterday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to vote on proposed changes to its Rule 15c2-12 on disclosure at an open meeting Wednesday and also may direct staff to approve a related Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposal the same day.