Andrew Ackerman

A federal judge in Manhattan has refused to dismiss lawsuits four California issuers filed against Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan, and other banks, broker-dealers, and investment brokers, charging they conspired to rig bids and fix prices of guaranteed investment and derivatives contracts in the municipal market.

WASHINGTON — All 41 Senate Republicans and one Democrat voted Monday evening against limiting debate on a massive financial regulatory reform bill, depriving Democrats leadership of the 60 votes they needed to move forward with a vote the full Senate.

The Investment Company Institute is urging the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to expand the proposed second phase of its transparency system for short-term debt to include more types of data and documents, while the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is concerned that the expansion would be unduly onerous for dealers.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced yesterday that it has fined HSBC Securities Inc. $1.5 million and U.S. Bancorp Investments Inc. $275,000 to settle sales-practice violations for municipal and other auction-rate securities the firms sold to retail customers.

WASHINGTON — When President Obama last spoke at New York’s Cooper Union as a presidential candidate two years ago, he called for an overhaul of the “balkanized” regulatory system for the financial markets and blamed the credit crisis on Washington lobbyists and politicians who engineered deregulation in the late 1990s.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Agriculture Committee’s passage yesterday of a bill to regulate over-the-counter derivatives and impose a fiduciary duty on swap dealers for muni issuers drew polarized reactions yesterday. Dealer representatives warned that it would kill the muni derivatives market while a former regulator applauded the provision and called for lawmakers to go even further.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is seeking public comment on draft interpretive guidance it released yesterday that outlines steps dealers must take to ensure the prices they charge customers to buy and sell municipal securities are fair and reasonable.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Agriculture Committee has voted 13 to 8, mostly along party lines, to approve a bill to regulate over-the-counter derivatives. The bill would impose a fiduciary duty on dealers who pitch, advise or enter into swaps with localities, endowment funds, or pension funds.

WASHINGTON — Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Blanche Lincoln and other Democrats contend it’s necessary to impose a fiduciary duty on dealers that act as swap ­counterparties to state and local governments because some of them have misled municipalities into entering swaps they didn’t understand.

The Obama administration and Senate Democrats yesterday urged senators to come to an agreement on broad financial regulatory reform this week, while the most moderate Republican on the issue argued that negotiations should go on for at least another three or four weeks before a bill is considered on the Senate floor.

WASHINGTON — Swap dealers that pitch to, advise, or enter into swap agreements with states, localities, and public pension funds would have a “fiduciary duty” to put the interests of those entities first, under legislation released Friday afternoon by Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Blanche Lincoln.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined three firms a total of $62,500 for municipal and other rule violations, including $32,500 from Lexington Investment Co. for failing to accurately report muni and corporate securities transactions.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Charles Schumer joined current and former chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday to urge lawmakers to keep a self-funding provision for the SEC in financial regulatory reform legislation that is inching its way to a vote in the Senate.

Industrial production edged up 0.1% in March, the ninth consecutive increase, but the growth was constrained partly due to storms, the Federal Reserve Board reported yesterday.

WASHINGTON - Industrial production edged up 0.1% in March, the ninth consecutive monthly increase, but the growth was constrained partly due to storms, the Federal Reserve Board reported today.

A group of state insurance regulators is beginning to provide substitute credit ratings for municipal bonds held by insurance companies and is pitching the ratings to financial advisers and other market participants as a way to improve the marketability of issuers’ bonds to these companies.

Business inventories increased 0.5% in February, slightly above analysts’ expectations, the Commerce Department reported today.

Retail sales jumped 1.6% in March, beating analysts’ expectations in large part due to a 6.7% rise in motor vehicle and parts sales, the Commerce Department reported today.

WASHINGTON – Business inventories increased 0.5% in February, slightly above analysts’ expectations, the Commerce Department reported today.

WASHINGTON - Retail sales jumped 1.6% in March, beating analysts’ expectations in large part due to a 6.7% rise in motor vehicle and parts sales, the Commerce Department reported today.