Joan Quigley

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board unveiled an online toolkit for muni issuers Monday, telling state and local governments that underwriters, unlike muni advisors, do not have a fiduciary duty to issuer clients.

WASHINGTON - Dealer groups and market participants criticized the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's draft rule on broker's brokers last week, saying it would undermine, not improve, secondary market liquidity.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board would for the first time require broker-dealers to disclose to state and local governments that they are not fiduciaries and would prohibit underwriters from telling issuers not to hire financial advisors, under revised rule changes it filed Thursday.

WASHINGTON — New orders for manufactured goods increased 0.3% in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

New orders for manufactured goods increased 0.3% in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

WASHINGTON - Secondary market trading volume surged to more than $851 billion in the third quarter of 2011, the highest so far this year, but still fell 8.5% short of the almost $931 billion reached during the same period last year, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board said Wednesday.

New municipal issuance should rebound next year, given low interest rates, pent-up demand for projects, and improved finances among states and localities, market observers with the Bond Dealers of America said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for guidance on when a bank loan qualifies as a municipal security, officials said Monday.

Underwriters often push municipal issuers not to hire financial advisors and, if an issuer insists on working with one, prod them to retain broker-dealer FAs, an independent FA firm warned a Securities and Exchange Commission member earlier this month.

WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed two nominees to the Securities and Exchange Commission early Friday, ensuring the agency will not have vacancies as it grapples with rulemaking mandates imposed by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

A disclosure regimen that gives the Securities and Exchange Commission authority to set baseline standards might work for the traditional municipal securities markets, but not its riskier outposts, an independent financial advisor warned in an article last week.

WASHINGTON - Two congressmen joined issuers in urging the Governmental Accounting Standards Board to retool or withdraw a proposal that would change how cash-strapped states and localities report pension liabilities, saying the new standards would prove destructive in the current economy.

SAN ANTONIO - State and local governments must rally to defend the federal tax exemption for munis, a market expert warned Thursday, saying only they can persuade members of Congress about its importance.

SAN ANTONIO - At its bond attorneys' workshop, the National Association of Bond Lawyers elected new officers, who will serve one-year terms, and announced four new board members.

SAN ANTONIO - A bond attorney urged colleagues here on Wednesday to do more for "market betterment" by supporting legislative efforts to give the Securities and Exchange Commission authority to develop "a uniform baseline disclosure rule."

WASHINGTON - Public sector pensions should consider disclosing their projected future contributions in order to fare better in the marketplace, a bond lawyers' group said in guidance circulated earlier this month.

Kristin Franceschi practices corporate, securities and public finance law at DLA Piper. She represents clients and helps colleagues on structured financings, conduit deals, tax increment financings, defeasance transactions, arbitrage issues, and general municipal law.

DENVER - A dealer group said the issuer community must mobilize to defend the federal tax exemption for municipal securities, which has been called into question by recent Obama administration proposals.

DENVER - Almost one year after Meredith Whitney forecast widespread defaults by state and local governments, a new threat looms over the municipal securities market: the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, a market expert said here Thursday.

DENVER - Municipal borrowers continue to lag behind corporations in completing their annual audited financial reports, and state and local governments are only incrementally faster than a year ago, a new report concludes.