Far West

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Thursday filed a six-count indictment against three former UBS bankers — Peter Ghavami, Gary Heinz and Michael Welty — for participating in fraud schemes and conspiracies in connection with the bidding of investment and other contracts for municipal bonds from as early as 2001 until 2006.

WASHINGTON — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission Thursday unanimously agreed to propose pay-to-play restrictions and other business-conduct standards for swap dealers and major swap participants working with “special entities” such as states and localities. The pay-to-play restrictions mirror new Securities and Exchange Commission rules for investment advisers.

WASHINGTON — The $1.2 trillion continuing resolution the House approved Wednesday to keep federal agencies and programs funded through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 would increase funding for financial regulators and extend transportation and aviation funding as well as nuclear loan guarantees.

SAN FRANCISCO — Nestled in the Redwood-studded hills north of San Francisco, Marin County has been home to the likes of Brad Pitt and Jerry Garcia.

WASHINGTON — The new slate of House Republicans picked to preside over financial services staked out an ambitious set of policy goals Thursday, saying they intend to downsize or dismantle the government mandates supported by their Democratic predecessors.

Supporters of Build America Bonds lobbied hard Wednesday to convince lawmakers and administration officials to extend the program for another year as it appeared possible that any compromise tax legislation might not contain any municipal bond-related provisions.

The Justice Department has filed a new indictment against CDR Financial Products and three current and former officials that expands on some of the original October 2009 charges against them to include so-called honest services fraud — a criminal statute that survived a Supreme Court challenge earlier this year and is often used to prosecute wrongdoing by public officials.

Two bipartisan groups are pressing federal lawmakers and the president to get cracking on a solution to the funding crisis troubling the nation's transportation sector. They warned that Congress needs to find a new revenue source instead of leaning on proposals for a national infrastructure bank or increased privatization.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission postponed a competitive sale Wednesday of $523 million of mostly Build America Bonds by at least a week due to the slouching market.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — California's governor-elect, Jerry Brown, said Tuesday that he will keep Ana Matosantos as director of the Department of Finance.