Taylor Riggs

A court-appointed judicial hearing officer has determined that e-mails sent between New York Insurance Department officials showed bias regarding the restructuring of bond insurer MBIA Insurance Corp.

Red Capital Group has made two hires in its senior housing sector as it expands its trading and distribution platforms. Matthew O’Grady and James Scribner join the firm as managing directors based in the Columbus, Ohio, headquarters and Connecticut, respectively.

The municipal market can expect $4.68 billion in new issuance this week, with a half dozen deals above $250 million contributing to volume and putting the projected total around the average for the year.

Regulators denied Ambac Assurance Corp.’s requests that it be allowed to pay interest on all its outstanding surplus notes due June 7.

RBC Capital Markets is expanding its municipal platform with new hires for its sales and trading group.

An attorney representing banks holding MBIA Insurance policies guaranteeing structured finance products argued Tuesday that the $5 billion restructuring of MBIA’s insurance subsidiary was done without giving a group of policy-owning banks a chance to object.

Long-term municipal bond issuance is half of what it was a year ago, with volume down 51% through the end of May versus the same time last year.

The municipal market can expect $2.5 billion of new issuance in a holiday-shortened week, including two sizeable New York deals, but that’s not enough to keep up with last week’s revised $4.3 billion total, which was up from a revised $3.9 billion the week before, according to Ipreo LLC and The Bond Buyer.

Lawyers for Ambac Financial Group said the bankruptcy plan submitted by the Wisconsin insurance regulator was unacceptable, and the company intends to issue its own plan in June.

Rating downgrades by Fitch Ratings outnumbered upgrades in 2010, according to a new report by the agency.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. is buying financial data and software company Ipreo LLC from private investment firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

Despite attractive borrowing rates, issuers continue to hold back, with new-issue volume slipping for a third week, putting it on schedule to be the fourth-slowest so far this year.

With health care reform and the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the industry faces increasing uncertainty over how an organization will be able to manage with less robust revenue and accelerating consolidation, according to a new study by National Public Finance Guarantee Corp.

The Arts & Business Council of New York will honor a municipal finance lawyer for her compliance work in relation to tax-exempt financing for the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Studio 54.

Syncora Guarantee reported positive net income for the first quarter but said it faces liquidity problems that threaten its future long-term obligations.

Robert Mills, chief financial officer of Assured Guaranty Ltd., will become chief operating officer, effective June 1. He will fill the role that has been vacant since March 31, when Séan McCarthy resigned.

New muni issuance is edging up.

BMO Capital Markets is on a hiring spree as the firm opens up two new sales offices and expands its municipal research team. The bank has been hiring for several months now as it seeks to expand its presence in the muni market.

MBIA Inc.’s chief executive officer said Wednesday that it is only a matter of time before the troubled bond insurer is reimbursed by financial institutions for its losses related to residential mortgage-backed securities that it insured during the housing boom.

MBIA Inc. reported first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, posting an adjusted pre-tax income of $25 million compared to a loss of $90 million for the same period in 2010. But it was not enough to boost investor confidence and shares sank 2.79% to $9.75 in after-hours trading.