Yvette Shields

Fallout from the Wells Fargo phony accounts scandal has reached Midwest bond borrowers, with Illinois announcing bans on bond and investment work and the Chicago City Council set to consider a moratorium on any bond-related business.

Already the lowest rated state, Illinois suffered a new downgrade as S&P Global Ratings dropped it to BBB ahead of $1.8 billion in bond sales.

Wells Fargo would lose out on financial business with the city of Chicago for two years under an ordinance proposed Friday by the City Council’s powerful Finance Committee chairman in the aftermath of the firm’s phony accounts scandal.

Illinois has until the end of January to make headway with its budget woes before Fitch Ratings is prepared to sock it with a downgrade.

Chicago-based financial advisor Melanie Shaker is returning to her rating agency roots, joining S&P Global Ratings on the commercial side.

Illinois plans to return to the market next month with a $1.3 billion general obligation refunding that would be followed by a $480 million new money GO issue.

Chicago Public Schools’ fiscal gains this year are fading to the background as a potential teachers strike looms large and a new downgrade puts the district on the cusp of the triple-C category.

Changes in assumed investment return rates at four of Illinois’ five state employee pension funds, as well as other revised assumptions in areas like life expectancy, are raising pressure on the state to tackle pension reforms.

The Chicago Teachers Union is moving closer to a strike that would mark a setback in the junk-rated Chicago Public Schools’ efforts to stabilize its finances.

Chicago-based veteran municipal analyst Peter Stettler has joined Piper Jaffray's strategic analytics team.

Illinois named 15 firms to the new senior manager underwriting pool it will use for negotiated bond sales over the next three years.

Chicago will bolster its police ranks as part of a broader plan aimed at reining in a skyrocketing homicide rate that some believe threatens to undercut the city’s recent fiscal progress.

Wisconsin’s new budget director will take the helm next month as work begins in earnest on the state’s new biennial spending plan.

The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy’s municipal finance center is offering grants for academic research projects on topics that range from public sector pensions and bond financing to infrastructure, taxation, and the politics of public finance.

Chicago’s proposed fix for its troubled municipal employees’ pension fund offers a better solution than a restructuring backed by the fund’s managers, say Chicago’s finance chiefs.

Chicago Public Schools closed on $325 million of short-term borrowing earlier this month and plans a $150 million draw next month from new credit lines to manage its precarious liquidity.

Northwestern Memorial Healthcare and University of Chicago Medical Center are planning deals totaling about $425 million following Illinois Finance Authority approval.

While the Chicago and Illinois credits both remain tainted by their pension and budget ills, their paths have diverged and Chicago is looking better, Nuveen Asset Management says in a new report.

The Chicago City Council signed off Wednesday on up to $3.5 billion of O’Hare International Airport borrowing and a new water/sewer tax to help rescue the city’s largest pension fund from looming insolvency.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic returns to the market Wednesday to take advantage of low interest rates to shed some of its floating-rate exposure.