Jack Casey

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.

The town of Ramapo, N.Y. and one of four individuals charged with securities fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading muni bond investors are disputing the charges and urging a federal judge to dismiss the case.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is aiming to make progress on a number of high-profile projects during its board meeting next week including markup and bank loan disclosure as well as a new municipal advisor complaint system and plans to improve EMMA.

Municipal market participants are criticizing as too low the $50,000 fine that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority imposed on Dougherty & Co. after finding the firm served as an underwriter for 54 issuers with which it had ongoing “blanket” financial advisory agreements.

Elaine Greenberg, the former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s municipal enforcement unit, has joined Greenberg Traurig’s Washington D.C. office as a shareholder, the firm announced Tuesday.

Dougherty & Co. was hit with the largest Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fine of its kind in recent years after the firm agreed to pay $50,000 for serving as an underwriter for 54 issuers with which it had ongoing "blanket" financial advisory agreements.

Congressional leaders have named the eight members who will serve on a legislative task force responsible for examining possible ways to boost Puerto Rico’s struggling economy.

Oriental Financial Services, Hilltop Securities, Alluvion Securities and Sterne, Agee & Leach have agreed to pay a combined $133,358 for municipal securities violations uncovered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

A recent study’s findings that the share of households holding municipal debt fell considerably over a 24-year period with a corresponding condensing of ownership in the hands of the wealthiest may lead to political questions related to muni debt, the study’s authors conclude.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts wants issuers to improve their disclosures about statutory liens and how they could affect general obligation bonds following a slew of recent municipal bankruptcies where this was a key issue.

Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress is asking Gov. Alejandro García Padilla to take steps to comply with a portion of the recently enacted law, PROMESA, that requires cost estimates for new commonwealth legislation to be disclosed after an oversight board is created.