Oliver Renick

Build America Mutual Assurance Corp., the bond insurer launched in July 2012, had the best quarterly performance by date as league leader Assured Guaranty Municipal launched its own muni-only business, Municipal Assurance Corp.

Housing Finance Agencies in the U.S. have the highest ratings ever and are maintaining strong financial ratios, according to Standard & Poor's.

Chadbourne & Parke LLP added Lawrence Larose and Samuel Kohn, former Winston & Strawn lawyers involved in Detroit's bankruptcy case, to the firm's New York-based bankruptcy team.

U.S. State Housing Finance Agencies weathered the storm of the financial crisis and are now getting a boost from creative structuring and rising home prices, Moody's Investors Service said, raising the sector's outlook to stable from negative.

Lack of new issue volume and concerns over how a government shutdown may affect an upcoming debt ceiling debate kept the municipal market a slow pace on Thursday.

A near-empty slate of new issue bonds and tepid investors weighing the impact of a government shutdown led to a slow and steady market for tax-exempt municipals Thursday, traders said.

The municipal market opened at a slow pace on Thursday with few new deals in the market after a heavy day of pricing on Wednesday.

Lorrie DuPont, a former managing director at William Blair & Co., will join RBC Capital Markets' municipal finance department.

The municipal market is prepared to withstand a congressional impasse over raising the debt ceiling this month as a U.S. credit downgrade that roiled the tax-free market during the 2011 debate is considered unlikely to recur this time around.

JPMorgan Securities LLC pulled away from Citi in the third quarter of this year to solidify its hold on the No. 2 spot among municipal underwriters in a year that has seen lower volume of public finance issues.

Build America Mutual Assurance Co., the start-up mutual municipal bond insurer, is open for business in Florida.

Unfunded pensions for government employees are a growing burden for municipalities across the nation, Moody's Investors Service said in a report Thursday.

John Hallacy, the former head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch's municipal research who in July left amid a department shakeup, will join Assured Guaranty as a managing director of public finance.

Higher interest rates and stress in the U.S. municipal market may boost gains for bond insurers, which are positioned to benefit from high levels of muni refundings in the next two years, Standard and Poor's said in a report Tuesday.

Current default trends and bankruptcy events indicate that the level of recoveries from troubled municipal bond debt may be substantially lower in the future, Kroll Bond Ratings Agency said in a report Monday.

UMB Bank, the banking subsidiary of UMB Financial Corp., added four former Wells Fargo executives in a move to expand its presence in Minneapolis.

Dan O'Brien, a former vice president at Janney Montgomery Scott, has joined Robert W. Baird & Co.'s public finance team.

Build America Mutual Assurance Co., the municipal-only financial guarantor seeking to establish itself in a reviving bond insurance market, this month wrapped $76 million of new general obligation bonds for Michigan issuers to help them overcome the taint of Detroit's bankruptcy.

Joyce Gorman, a former partner in the securities and derivatives group at Ashurst LLP, has joined Ballard Spahr LLP to bolster four groups related to public finance and assist in training programs.

If RBC Capital Markets' position among the top five negotiated underwriters the past two years doesn't show that the company is in the muni market to stay, its massive trading floor in downtown Manhattan's Three World Financial Center just might.