Washington DC

More issuers are missing bond payments and deadlines for filing annual financials; the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans filed for bankruptcy partially blaming COVID-19, affecting $41 million of bonds.

The Fed’s rates send a signal to the municipal market that it wants it to survive on its own.

IRS General Counsel Michael Desmond said Wednesday his office has received “a number of requests” for extending deadlines.

BB&T failed to submit accurate minimum denomination and maximum interest rates to the MSRB’s Short-Term Obligation Rate Transparency (SHORT) System in 3,710 instances, FINRA found.

A bipartisan group of New York lawmakers announced Wednesday plans to introduce a bill that would split federal aid between counties and municipalities.

The House is expected to release a stimulus package in the next few days.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts asked the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to create a separate category for COVID-19 related disclosures.

One of the bills authorizes $17 billion in new federal authorization to invest in water infrastructure as municipalities grapple with coronavirus’ impact on their water systems.

The “municipality fund” would use a modified Community Development Block Grant formula with 70% going to cities and towns with a population of over 50,000 and the remaining 30% to municipalities under 50,000 in population.

Mark Kim, MSRB chief operating officer, predicted even more disclosures in the near future.

The IRS also announced temporary guidance providing relief for the calendar year 2020 regarding the reacquisition of qualified tender bonds and commercial paper.

The SEC encouraged issuers to provide investors with forward-looking information as to how the pandemic will affect future finances.

The congressional letter emphasizes that Congress wants the Fed to expand its support for the municipal bond market beyond the scope of the Municipal Liquidity Facility.

Many of the MSRB’s past and current public board members have had significant connections with regulated dealers or banks, the unions said.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said there could be three tranches of federal aid directed to state, county and municipal governments

Broker-dealers oppose a proposed change to MSRB's governance rule that would reserve two seats for municipal advisors.

House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal said he's working closely with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to include major infrastructure provisions in what members of Congress are calling CARES Act 2.

To win a summary judgment, a party to a lawsuit must show that there is no factual dispute at issue and that the facts of the case can only support a finding in that party’s favor.

Two executives for the failed Tri-Valley charter schools agreed to pay $20,000 and $15,000 to settle charges of misleading municipal bond investors.

In a weekly COVID-19 disclosure report released Tuesday, included among the hundreds of disclosures were two unscheduled draws on debt service reserves.