Patrick McGee

William O’Keefe was named senior managing director of municipal marketing for Assured Guaranty Ltd., the company said late last week. The announcement came just weeks after O’Keefe was appointed head of the municipal desk at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.

William O’Keefe was named senior managing director of municipal marketing for Assured Guaranty Ltd., the company said late Thursday. The announcement came just weeks after O’Keefe was appointed head of the municipal desk at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.

MBIA Inc.’s attempt to shield its public finance business from its more toxic structured finance guarantees hit a roadblock Thursday as the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit charging MBIA with fraud and breach of good faith.

The three principle rating agencies reported increased volatility and a substantial number of municipal issuer downgrades last year. Yet in their respective reviews of 2009, Moody’s Investors Service, Fitch Ratings, and Standard & Poor’s each implied that while strains will certainly continue into the next year or two, municipalities should be able to withstand the financial pressure.

The fixed-income management group at MBIA Inc. received new branding ­yesterday.

Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp. lost its lone triple-A rating when it was downgraded to AA-plus by Standard & Poor’s Thursday.

Public Financial Management Inc. signaled continued growth in the municipal market by naming five new managing directors last week. The new partners, promoted in-house, work in different offices and perform a wide variety of tasks in line with the firm’s expectation of a robust market this year.

Light to moderate trading conditions and a firm tone pervaded the market yesterday while underwriters deferred pricing a scheduled $650 million deal for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

While a law passed in 1978 allowed tax-increment bond sales from redevelopment agencies in California to flourish compared to the rest of the country, in recent years new issuance has collapsed as property values have switched directions from boom to bust, according to a credit sector report issued by bond insurer National Public Finance Guarantee Corp.

RBC Capital Markets continued to expand its municipal finance platform by naming analyst Chris Mauro as a director of municipal bond research, the firm announced yesterday.

Assured Guaranty Ltd. late yesterday announced it named John Trahan managing director of the southern region for both of Assured’s municipal insurers — Assured Guaranty Corp. and Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp.

Municipal bond issuance is projected by many analysts to hit record numbers this year, and Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. wants in.

Fitch Ratings on Monday announced the promotion of two company veterans to key senior positions. John Olert was named chief credit officer, and Mary Griffin Metz was named chief compliance officer.

Municipal underwriting veteran Steven Citron was named chief risk officer of start-up bond insurer BondModel Co. yesterday.

The financial crisis opened doors of opportunity to many smaller firms last year, and minority-owned broker-dealers were no exception. In fact, they may be the textbook example.

Syncora Guarantee Inc. expects to post a material decrease in its statutory surplus for the fourth quarter, the company announced Friday. It also said restructuring efforts may be nearing completion and that it hopes to recommence paying claims.

The 2009 rankings for bond insurers will surprise no one who has been paying attention to the municipal market. The dominant player in the game didn’t just command a large slice of the pie — it took the pie itself, minus a few crumbs here and there.

JCRA Financial LLC, a financial risk management and structured finance advisory firm, announced this week that veteran banker Richard H. Gregory was hired as managing director.

Continued speculation that municipal credits could deteriorate is helping business at Savader Asset Advisors LLC. The credit research firm this week added three independent contractors to its analytics team and plans to start broker-dealer operations this month.

Year in year out the numbers change but the story remains the same for Public ­Financial Management Inc. The Philadelphia-based firm was ranked the number one public financial adviser for every year since 1989, and in recent years their dominance has only been growing.