Joan Quigley

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued a Georgia attorney and his client for securities fraud for failing to disclose the client’s criminal indictment in offering documents related to the 2006 sale of $2.96 million of industrial redevelopment revenue bonds by Raleigh County, W. Va.

In the realm of muni enforcement, the new year will start with the most high-profile federal criminal trial since the mid-1990s, stemming from the Justice Department's extensive probe of bid-rigging.

The coming year could herald the most significant regulatory changes in the municipal securities market in more than 35 years.

GE Funding Capital Market Services Inc. has agreed to pay more than $70 million to settle antitrust, securities fraud, tax and other charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators and law enforcement authorities for rigging bids on at least 328 muni bond reinvestment contracts in 44 states and Puerto Rico over five years, officials said Friday.

GE Funding Capital Market Services has agreed to pay $70 million to settle securities fraud, tax and other charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators and law enforcement authorities, stemming from ongoing probes of muni market bid rigging, the SEC said Friday.

WASHINGTON — Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims declined to 364,000 for the week ending Dec. 17, a 4,000 decrease from the previous week’s revised figure of 368,000 and the lowest since April 19, 2008, when claims were 352,000, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.

Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims fell to 364,000 for the week ending Dec. 17, a 4,000 decrease from the previous week's revised figure of 368,000 and the lowest since April 19, 2008, when such claims were 352,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission may not finalize its final registration requirements and definition of municipal advisors until Sept. 30, 2012, effectively delaying several related Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rules until then.

Thirty-four congressmen urged Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Schapiro to exempt broker-dealers and other regulated entities from its proposed municipal advisor definition, warning in a letter Monday that the failure to do so would impose unnecessary regulation and harm issuers by reducing competition.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined six firms and an individual a total of roughly $233,000 for violations of municipal securities rules, the self-regulator announced Thursday.

Market participants urged the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to broaden the definition of "sophisticated municipal market professional," saying it should include individuals with muni or fixed-income assets of $25 million, or $50 million in munis and other assets, not $50 million in munis, as the board had proposed.

Due to ongoing budgetary uncertainties, the Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to lead its municipal securities office with a director who does not report directly to SEC chairman Mary Schapiro, as was mandated by the financial reform law enacted last year.

Two Republican members of the Securities and Exchange Commission have stalled the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed G-17 guidance on fair dealing for underwriters, saying they need more time to analyze the proposal, according to sources.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has stalled the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed Rule G-17 guidance on fair dealing for underwriters, seeking more public comments on the proposal, according to the MSRB.

Other financial industry groups lobby Washington lawmakers and regulators about the issues that affect the municipal securities markets, but few can match SIFMA's resources.

As Jefferson County, Ala., teetered on the edge of bankruptcy for much of this year, a financial industry group plowed more than $4 million into lobbying Washington lawmakers and regulators to dilute provisions of the reform law enacted last year to curb the kinds of abuses that helped trigger the municipality's fiscal distress.

SIFMA's highest-paid outside lobbyist this year, Ernst & Young LLP in Washington, received $240,000 through September for activities in the House, the Senate, and the Treasury Department on miscellaneous corporate tax issues related to financial services, according to its disclosure reports.

State treasurers voiced concerns about a proposal unveiled by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board that recommends they provide five-year projections of cash flows and information about future financial obligations.

WASHINGTON - An industry group on Tuesday will unveil a revised edition of a one-volume treatise on municipal bonds, citing significant changes in the market since the last edition went to press 10 years ago.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board will propose that state and local governments report five-year projections of cash inflows, outflows, and future financial obligations as supplementary information, following the notes to their financial statements.