Far West

The new federal health care law will likely mean less revenue for nonprofit hospitals in the long run, Moody’s Investors Service warned in a report out this week.

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined three firms a total of $62,500 for municipal and other rule violations, including $32,500 from Lexington Investment Co. for failing to accurately report muni and corporate securities transactions.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Charles Schumer joined current and former chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday to urge lawmakers to keep a self-funding provision for the SEC in financial regulatory reform legislation that is inching its way to a vote in the Senate.

WASHINGTON — A lawmaker and a Treasury Department official Thursday pushed for a permanent extension of the Build America Bond program, but acknowledged that the greatest obstacle is finding a way to pay for it.

SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ended a standoff with the City Council over electricity rate hikes, bringing to a close a political battle of wills that had hurt the city’s ratings and delayed a $720 million power revenue bond deal.

WASHINGTON — Infrastructure in the U.S., especially for water systems and surface transportation, is desperately in need of investment, the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young declared this week. Their report criticized governments from the local to federal levels for their sluggish movement toward transportation and infrastructure financing reform.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ron Wyden, who recently caused a stir in the municipal bond market by proposing a tax-reform bill that would eliminate tax-exempt bonds and replace them with tax-credit bonds, said yesterday he is open to discussing possible modifications to the legislation with critics.

A group of state insurance regulators is beginning to provide substitute credit ratings for municipal bonds held by insurance companies and is pitching the ratings to financial advisers and other market participants as a way to improve the marketability of issuers’ bonds to these companies.

Innovative financing tools for transportation projects — including an array of different types of bonds — should be expanded and grouped into a centralized department at the federal level, state and local officials told House panel members yesterday.

WASHINGTON — At least six state securities regulators are considering enforcement action against banks and broker-dealers that have failed to commit their “best efforts” to restore liquidity to institutional investors in auction-rate securities, according to David Massey, North Carolina’s deputy securities ­administrator.