Far West

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department's Federal Insurance office is seeking input from the industry and public for a report it must write and submit to Congress early next year on how to modernize and improve the regulatory system for insurance companies, including monoline bond insurers.

RBC Capital Markets LLC was fined $95,000 and ordered to pay almost $33,000 in restitution to investors for unfair pricing of municipal bonds, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority reported Monday.

WASHINGTON - Two congressmen joined issuers in urging the Governmental Accounting Standards Board to retool or withdraw a proposal that would change how cash-strapped states and localities report pension liabilities, saying the new standards would prove destructive in the current economy.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced Monday that it will extend the terms of nine board members beyond Sept. 30, 2012, to ensure it has three classes of seven members with staggered terms.

WASHINGTON - House Financial Services Committee Republicans are urging the joint supercommittee to significantly scale back the Dodd-Frank Act and its derivatives provisions, as well as reduce the size of the community development block grant program.

California's economy still has some cracks, but its strengths — including its diversity of industries — are starting to overshadow weaknesses such as the high cost of doing business in the state, according to speakers at the Milken Institute State of the State Conference 2011.

SAN ANTONIO - State and local governments must rally to defend the federal tax exemption for munis, a market expert warned Thursday, saying only they can persuade members of Congress about its importance.

SAN ANTONIO - At its bond attorneys' workshop, the National Association of Bond Lawyers elected new officers, who will serve one-year terms, and announced four new board members.

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco has started a program to finance energy efficiency in commercial buildings through loans backed by property taxes.

SAN ANTONIO - Attorneys must read transaction documents carefully and think before signing them, Securities and Exchange Commission officials warned Thursday, citing an ongoing enforcement case against Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and one of its former executives.