Naomi Jagoda

The Internal Revenue Service has asked some issuers to pay back part of the subsidy payments for their direct-pay bonds because the wrong sequestration reduction rate was used to determine the payment amount, said Rebecca Harrigal, the director of the IRS’ tax-exempt bond office.

Two Midwestern issuers have disclosed that they will redeem Build America Bonds in early June because their subsidy payments have been reduced due to sequestration.

Increased transparency in the bond rating agencies has been a positive for both investors and issuers, even though it can potentially create a false sense of analysis being an exact science, experts told fellow municipal analysts on Thursday.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will vote on a surface transportation reauthorization bill on May 15, committee leaders announced Thursday.

Consumer credit increased by $17.5 billion, or 6.7%, in March to $3.141 trillion, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday.

Municipal default rates continue to be elevated but are still low compared to other sectors such as corporate finance, Moody's Investors Service said in a report released Wednesday.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers urged the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to provide guidance in the coming year on matters ranging from President Obama's health care reform law to the definition of a political subdivision.

Standard & Poor's U.S. public finance upgrades outnumbered downgrades in the first quarter of 2014, the sixth consecutive quarter with a positive tilt, the rating agency said Monday.

Large public funds tracked by the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service outperformed small ones in the first quarter of 2014.

Moody's Investors Service said it made 97 upgrades in the first quarter of 2014, the most since the third quarter of 2009.

The Bellefontaine City School District in Ohio has disclosed that it intends to redeem some or all of the $14.19 million of Build America Bonds it issued in 2010 because of reduced subsidy payments due to sequestration.

Market participants should look at contribution levels, plan assumptions, and other factors when analyzing the health of a pension system and governments should employ best practices to avoid underfunding, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities wrote in a report issued this week.

The Berea City School District in Ohio said that it can redeem $12.87 million of series 2009B certificates of participation designated as Build America Bonds because its subsidy payments were reduced due to sequestration.

A bill introduced in the House earlier this month would renew empowerment zone and renewal community designations, allowing certain areas to be eligible again for tax incentives including empowerment zone facility bonds and qualified zone academy bonds.

Existing home sales inched down 0.2% to a seasonally adjusted 4.59 million-unit rate in March from an unrevised 4.60 million pace the previous month, the National Association of Realtors announced Tuesday.

A bill introduced in the Senate that would provide tax relief for major disaster areas designated as such in 2012 and 2013 has several bond provisions, including one that would allow state and local governments to issue qualified disaster area recovery bonds.

The Joint Committee on Taxation this week released its estimates of the budget effects of the revenue proposals in President Obama's fiscal 2015 budget, including those related to municipal bonds.

WASHINGTON — Industrial production rose 0.7% in March, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday.

A new paper makes recommendations for increasing the number of bond financings for clean energy projects.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government in Kentucky expects to competitively sell about $61.71 million of bonds on April 22 in order to redeem $60.47 million of Build America Bonds that it issued in 2010, an issuer official said.