Far West

San Francisco’s unfunded pension and retiree health care liabilities have ballooned to around $6 billion, according to a report by a Stanford academic and former California assemblyman.

Policy makers at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System voted this week to disregard the advice of their chief actuary and keep the retirement system’s assumed annual rate of investment return at 7.75%.

California Controller John Chiang Monday released an actuarial report saying the state faces a $59.9 billion bill to pay for health care and dental benefits for state retirees over the next 30 years.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is developing a system that will tell its examiners and firms’ compliance officials whether firms that sold munis with material-event disclosures passed that information on to customers.

WASHINGTON — Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Schapiro told House members Tuesday that her agency is pursuing a number of municipal securities investigations across the country.

SAN FRANCISCO — An independent auditor says Victorville is nearing insolvency.The California city’s auditor, Mayer Hoffman McCann PC, noted the shuffling of tens of millions of dollars of bond proceeds between different agencies without proper approval.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — With the fate of California redevelopment agencies still unknown, the agencies are rushing deals to market at an accelerated pace — and appear to be paying a steep price for it.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined nine firms a total of $129,500 for violations of muni trade reporting, pricing, book-keeping, record-keeping, and supervisory rules.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., on Tuesday unveiled legislation for a national infrastructure bank that could finance up to $10 billion of projects in each of its first two years.

Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board data for recent years shows a steep decline in municipal bond trading by dollar volume but an increase in the overall number of trades.