Kyle Glazier

Issuers battling dealer firms over the right to seek arbitration to settle disputes over auction rate securities are planning to take their case to the Supreme Court now that a federal appeals court has ruled against them.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Barclays Capital Inc. with failing to maintain an adequate internal compliance system after it acquired the advisory business of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

Future Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative settlements may offer more detail on the Securities and Exchange Commission's priorities and the SEC's Office of Municipal Securities may offer more municipal advisor rule guidance, commission officials said Thursday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will probably use emergency court action to stop state and local governments from selling municipal bonds if it thinks their offerings are fraudulent, an enforcement division official told bond lawyers meeting here.

A federal appeals court recently agreed with a lower court that former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux does not have immunity from Securities and Exchange Commission charges, a decision some experts think could have implications for the SEC's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative or other enforcement actions going forward.

A federal banking rule that doesn't classify municipal bonds as high-quality liquid assets needs to be reworked to ensure it won't impede critical infrastructure development, Sen. Chuck Schumer told regulators on Tuesday.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined two firms a total of $31,000 dollars for violations of municipal securities rules, FINRA disclosed in the September monthly disciplinary actions it released Monday.

A Treasury Department official, a former Federal Reserve Board chair, congressional staffers and state treasurers spoke at an industry-sponsored municipal securities conference on Thursday that was closed to the press.

The federal government ran a $128.7 billion budget deficit in August, the Treasury reported Thursday.

Dave Sanchez, a lawyer who previously worked in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities, has launched a new practice that will focus on securities law compliance for issuers and municipal advisors.

A large number of dealer firms have voluntarily reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission deals they underwrote where issuers failed to disclose noncompliance with their continuing disclosure agreements, the SEC's enforcement director said Wednesday.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has hired former BondDesk Trading LLC president John Bagley as its chief market structure officer, the MSRB announced Wednesday.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, calling municipal securities the "lifeblood" of U.S. infrastructure development, pressed regulators to revise federal banking liquidity rules to classify certain munis as high-quality liquid assets.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is seeking public comment on its priorities as it plans for the next two years and beyond, the MSRB announced Monday.

New federal banking regulations will further constrain already struggling infrastructure finance, transportation advocates warned.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers has announced that it will present three of its members with awards when the group meets in Chicago next month.

Municipal securities will not qualify as high-quality liquid assets under a new federal liquidity coverage ratio rule slated to take effect on Jan. 1. However, the Federal Reserve Board is working on a proposal to include some municipal bonds as HQLA at a later date.

State treasurers and financial officers are urging federal banking regulators to identify quantitative liquidity standards or characteristics that would allow at least some municipal securities to qualify as high-quality liquid assets in a rule to be released on Wednesday.

A more than $700 million dollar deal that RBC Capital Markets executed in New Mexico earlier this month is has raised the eyebrows of some market participants, who think the firm's municipal advisory relationships with several New Mexico cities created a conflict of interest when it underwrote the deal for a power authority run by those municipalities.

A bipartisan House duo is threatening the Securities and Exchange Commission, warning it must further ease the Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative for dealers before the Sept. 10 deadline for participation or they will step in with legislative action.