Far West

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have asked the Federal Housing Finance Agency to consider allowing a pilot program for Property Assessed Clean Energy bonds that would allow for the gathering of data on how the programs affect home loans, a point of concern for the regulator.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is considering temporarily expanding its 15-member board, possibly by two to four members, as it transitions to majority-public membership by Oct. 1 to comply with the new financial regulatory reform law.

WASHINGTON — President Obama yesterday signed into law financial regulatory reform legislation that will make sweeping changes in the municipal and other markets, saying it will prevent a reoccurrence of the “breakdown” that caused the current “severe recession.”

EddieTech, a private nonprofit organization based here, is working to put together the first national pooled offering of direct-pay qualified school construction and qualified zone academy bonds for districts across the country.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to propose new rules designed to revamp the sales and distribution fees some mutual funds charge and to provide better disclosures of them to investors.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering holding five field hearings between September and January as part of a nationwide inquiry on the municipal market that is expected to lead to recommendations for statutory and regulatory changes to better protect investors.

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Schapiro told lawmakers Tuesday that the agency needs to hire 800 people to implement provisions in the financial regulatory reform legislation that President Obama is expected to sign into law today.

The Senate may vote on a multi-year Federal Aviation Administration bill this week that could include an increase in the cap on passenger facilities charges, a key lawmaker and others said Tuesday at a meeting here sponsored by the American Association of Airport Executives.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is soliciting public comments through Aug. 9 on a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposal to change its EMMA site to reflect new materiality standards for continuing disclosures as well as changes to a list of event-based disclosures that borrowers may voluntarily submit to the system.

The Cinco Municipal Utility District No. 1, located near Houston, has disclosed that the Internal Revenue Service is auditing $5.2 million of revenue bonds it issued in 2002 to finance water and sewer infrastructure.