Andrew Ackerman

Personal income rose 0.2% in August, while personal spending increased 1.3%, fueled largely by the success of the “cash for clunkers” auto program, new data on personal consumption expenditures released by the Commerce Department yesterday indicated.

WASHINGTON - Personal income rose 0.2% in August, while personal spending increased 1.3%, fueled largely by the success of the “cash for clunkers” program, new data on personal consumption expenditures released by the Commerce Department this morning showed.

WASHINGTON — Moody’s Investors Service conducts “virtually no surveillance” of its municipal bond ratings, despite its claims to the public and Congress that it robustly monitors all the securities it rates, a former chief compliance officer warned the Securities and Exchange Commission in a March letter.

WASHINGTON - A House Financial Services Committee panel will hold a hearing today on draft legislation that would both ensure municipal bonds are rated the same way as other securities and expose the rating agencies to significant liability for issuing faulty ratings.

WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission should require credit rating agencies, rather than issuers, to send rating information about municipal securities directly to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's EMMA system, issuers and bond attorneys argued last week.

NEW YORK CITY — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is conducting an inquiry into “flipping” and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is too aligned with dealers and needs more public members, regulators said here yesterday.

WASHINGTON - Four months after members of the House Financial Services Committee introduced four pieces of municipal bond-related legislation, only two are expected to move forward this fall and the other two are likely to languish.

WASHINGTON - Congress must strengthen the Treasury Department's proposed legislation to authorize the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate all securities-related over-the-counter derivatives and to raise the eligibility standards for municipalities that want to enter into swaps, the SEC chairman told a House panel yesterday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal to ban investment advisers' use of third-party placement agents will put new and small firms at significant disadvantage and will have additional unintended consequences, state officials, broker-dealers, and investment advisers are warning.

WASHINGTON — The House yesterday easily approved by a vote of 252 to 171 legislation that would eliminate the Federal Family Education Loan program, in line with the Obama administration’s push to require all federally guaranteed student loans to be issued directly by the federal government.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission took the first step yesterday toward increasing rating agency liability to investor lawsuits over the failure to accurately rate securities, part of a series of measures it unanimously adopted or floated to enhance disclosure and improve the quality of credit ratings.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board yesterday issued draft amendments to its Rule G-37 that would require banks and bank holding companies to disclose on a quarterly basis the contributions that their political action committees make to municipal issuer officials.

The imbalance in the current account narrowed in the second quarter to $98.8 billion from a revised $104.5 billion in the first quarter, previously reported as a $101.5 billion deficit, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.

WASHINGTON - The imbalance in the current account narrowed in the second quarter to $98.8 billion from a revised $104.5 billion in the first quarter, previously reported as a $101.5 billion deficit, the Commerce Department reported today.

August retail sales posted a 2.7% increase to $351.4 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis, while excluding automobiles, retail sales rose 1.1% to $287.2 billion, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board issued guidance yesterday that will streamline the disclosure of so-called backer information on electronic trade confirmations sent to institutional investors in municipal securities transactions.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined White Plains, N.Y.-based Belle Haven Investments LP $32,500 for failing to timely report municipal securities transactions and for failing to enforce written supervisory procedures, FINRA said yesterday.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined White Plains, N.Y.-based Belle Haven Investments LP $32,500 for failing to timely report municipal securities transactions and for failing to enforce written supervisory procedures, FINRA said yesterday.