Jack Casey

The Congressional Task Force on Economic Growth in Puerto Rico should avoid any changes to the Jones Act while considering various courses of action to help boost Puerto Rico's struggling economy, four congressmen said in a letter to the task force's House members.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts is suggesting that Congress should give the Securities and Exchange Commission direct regulatory authority over issuers as a way to improve disclosure in the municipal market.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's settlements with issuers under its continuing disclosure enforcement initiative will not impact specific rating determinations but will be an important component of analyzing an issuer's credit fundamentals, analysts from S&P Global Ratings said in a report on Monday.

Gates Capital Corp. agreed to pay a $22,500 fine after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority found the firm violated transaction reporting standards mandated under Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rules.

One former Kildare Capital employee has been banned from the market and another was hit with a $25,000 fine and 12-month ban after FINRA found that they artificially inflated interdealer prices for municipal securities through 25 round-trip transactions.

While dealer groups are pushing the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to place more restrictions on its proposal to share trade data with academics, researchers say the ones the MSRB has already floated threaten to render the data hard to use or even useless.

Administration officials and lawmakers are vetting candidates and rejecting some put forth by Republicans for the Puerto Rico oversight board as the Sept. 15 deadline for naming board members approaches.

Five municipal market groups are asking the Securities and Exchange Commission for guidance that would help create a streamlined process for issuers to amend their continuing disclosure agreements without running afoul of Rule 15c2-12 on disclosure.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed Securities and Exchange Commission charges against Peter Cannava, a banker involved in an ill-fated private placement for startup video game company 38 Studios.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is arguing that any court challenge to the constitutionality of revised Rule G-37 on political contributions can be made when an enforcement action is taken over a violation of the rule.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board filed an amendment with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday to make clear that although its revised rule against pay-to-play practices does not take effect until Aug. 17, there is still a two-year lookback under the current rule for individuals who make contributions before that date and then become associated with dealers.

The eight members of a recently named congressional task force on Puerto Rico's economy are soliciting input from both public and private Rico stakeholders as they begin assessing possible federal changes that could help the territory.

The par amount of municipal trades reached the highest level in nearly three years during the second quarter of 2016, showing a rebound from significant declines in the second half of last year, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board statistics posted Wednesday.

Colleen Woodell, former chief credit officer of global and corporate government ratings with S&P Global Ratings, will become the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s new chair on Oct. 1.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans to rebate $5.5 million proportionally among dealers, file a proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission on markup disclosure, and scrap the idea of requiring municipal advisors to disclose information about their issuer client's bank loans or privately placed municipal securities.

Goldman Sachs & Co. has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority charges that it submitted inaccurate auction rate securities information to a reporting system and did not have a supervisory system in place to catch the problems.

The Securities and Exchange Commission was legally required by fiscal 2016 appropriation act provisions to reject changes to Rule G-37 that extended political contribution restrictions to municipal advisors, three state Republican groups told federal appeals court judges.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is arguing it can't fight a lawsuit challenging a revised rule to curb municipal securities pay-to-play activity because the fiscal 2016 appropriations act prohibits it from spending money on any rules governing political contributions.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., announced on Monday that Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would serve as the chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Economic Growth for Puerto Rico.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board wants to cut in half a proposed requirement that would have mandated municipal securities transactions be closed out within 20 days of settlement after dealer groups urged the self-regulator to do so.