Washington

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board reported annual revenue of $39.9 million for the fiscal year ending in September, a 19% gain over last year's $33.5 million, according to the board's annual report, released Tuesday.

The Treasury Department officially suspended the sale of State and Local Government Series securities at noon last Friday, perhaps minimizing the impact on the municipal bond market.

Municipal bond and city interests are spending the final hours before the fiscal cliff deadline watching and waiting, remaining hopeful that lawmakers will agree on a slimmed-down last-minute deal not including any threats to the muni interest tax exemption.

Market participants wonder if the Justice Department will indict more firms and individuals for bid-rigging of bond-related investment and derivatives contracts.

The Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office plans to continue to invest significant resources in identifying abusive transactions in the municipal bond market in 2013.

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie Wednesday appointed Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Daniel Inouye earlier this month.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered five firms to pay $4.48 million for unfairly using bond proceeds to pay reimburse themselves for membership fees they paid to the California Public Securities Association, a lobbying group.

The federal government will reach its $16.4 trillion debt limit on Dec. 31 and will begin to suspend issuances of state and local government series securities and take other extraordinary measures to prevent defaulting on U.S. debt, the Treasury Secretary told leaders of Congress Tuesday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday issued an Investor Bulletin designed to help buyers of municipal bonds better understand bonds' credit risks.

Two Democrats from Michigan have introduced legislation that would allow a total of up to $1 billion of recovery zone economic development bonds to be issued over one year for projects in certain specified cities.

Political division in the leadership of the Securities and Exchange Commission could slow the agency's ability to advance a host of municipal market-related measures in 2013, say some market participants.

The transportation sector will spend next year looking for opportunities to achieve limited legislative goals, while hoping to stay out of the way of lawmakers who may have to slash funds in ongoing efforts to deal with the debt crisis.

President Obama is urging lawmakers to put together a package to avoid the fiscal cliff with the next 10 days.

Steve A. Chamberlin has been tapped to serve as acting director of the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office, officials said.

State and local governments will be able issue a total of $33.170 billion of private-activity bonds under a national volume cap next year: 1.1% or $349.01 million more than in 2012.

Moody's Investors Service upgraded District of Columbia senior ballpark revenue bonds to A2 from A3 and subordinate bonds to A3.

The SEC approved rule changes that would allow underwriters to fulfill some new-issue reporting requirements by filing information with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.'s New Issue Information Dissemination Service, or NIIDS.

U.S. attorneys asked a federal judge Monday to order former executives of a General Electric Co. affiliate to pay $6.9 million in restitution to municipal bond issuers for rigging bids on municipal bond reinvestment contracts.

The mere threat of including a 28% cap on the value of municipal tax exemption in a fiscal cliff deal has already caused munis to be more expensive for issuers and, if adopted, will fundamentally change the market, analysts and government groups warned Thursday.

Federal and transit agency officials made their case for federal aid to rebuild in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, telling a Senate panel they will need it to help pay debt service on new muni debt.