Far West

DENVER — Examiners for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are worried about concentrations of municipal bonds held by national banks, and have begun asking risk officers to evaluate their exposures, an OCC official said.

DENVER – Examiners for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are worried about concentrations of municipal bonds held by national banks, and have begun asking risk officers to evaluate their exposures, an OCC official said.

WASHINGTON — A House oversight committee hearing slated to examine state and municipal debt Thursday devolved into an extended debate about collective bargaining, featuring two sitting governors from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined Jefferies & Co. $1.5 million for failing to disclose that it was earning additional compensation when selling new-issue, auction-rate securities to clients.

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s controller is pushing new legislation that would strengthen state oversight over local government finances and audits.

WASHINGTON — President Obama announced the framework of a plan Wednesday to shrink the deficit $4 trillion over 12 years, and urged House and Senate leaders to appoint teams to negotiate a final bipartisan plan by the end of June.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission should rank nationally recognized credit rating agencies based on performance and should help investors hold them accountable in civil lawsuits over unjustifiable inflated ratings, a bipartisan congressional panel recommended Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO — A nonprofit mental-health service provider in Los Angeles County has gone belly-up, leaving a state-backed insurer on the hook for more than $5 million of bonds.

WASHINGTON — At a meeting Thursday and Friday in Nashville, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will tackle a host of muni adviser issues, including whether it will require financial advisers to pay fees to help defray the self-regulator’s increasing costs.

WASHINGTON — Independent financial advisers blasted the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board for its draft muni-adviser fiduciary duty rule, saying it targeted independent FAs while virtually exempting underwriters, some of which market themselves as advisers.