Far West

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday for the first time charged a state — New Jersey — with violating securities fraud laws by failing to disclose to bond investors that it was underfunding its two largest pension plans.

Barclays Capital Inc. wants to patent a computer system that would generate several municipal bond indexes, but a recent Supreme Court ruling could have an impact on the application's viability.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Tuesday said it is contemplating a rule change that would prohibit dealers from underwriting new negotiated or competitive bond issues if they served as the issuer's financial adviser on the transaction.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is challenging in federal court the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the federal Clean Air Act.

Fitch Ratings dropped its ratings on Bell to junk Tuesday, as the small Southern California city continued to reel from its unusual financial practices, which included paying a former city administrator almost $800,000 a year.

California Controller John Chiang said the city of Bell has been illegally taxing property owners for its retirement obligations, undercutting assumptions the city used to sell more than $9 million of pension obligation bonds in 2005.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined three firms $242,500 for municipal rules violations. They include $150,000 against Raymond James Financial Services for supervisory failures related to so-called 529 college savings plans it sold to clients.

For the second straight quarter a Federal Reserve Board survey suggested that the ultraconservative credit standards and loan terms put in place immediately after the crisis are beginning to thaw — though banks are still very tentative.

The Securities and Exchange Commission late Friday approved a controversial set of rule changes floated by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board that will dictate the priority of retail and other customer orders in primary offerings, as well as dealers' related record-keeping responsibilities.

WASHINGTON — Martin Kanefsky is the second broker of muni investment agreements that the Justice Department has taken action against, after CDR Financial Products, which the government indicted in October on nine criminal counts over alleged bid-rigging of muni investment and derivatives contracts.