Washington

A disclosure regimen that gives the Securities and Exchange Commission authority to set baseline standards might work for the traditional municipal securities markets, but not its riskier outposts, an independent financial advisor warned in an article last week.

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service plans to audit certain bond issues used by nonprofit organizations based on reviews of the bond-related information they file with the agency, IRS officials and tax lawyers said.

Proposals to limit the tax-exemption on municipal bonds get short shrift from the majority of market participants, but some state and local government experts on Tuesday seemed resigned to the notion that tax-reform efforts will inevitably do just that.

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department's Federal Insurance office is seeking input from the industry and public for a report it must write and submit to Congress early next year on how to modernize and improve the regulatory system for insurance companies, including monoline bond insurers.

RBC Capital Markets LLC was fined $95,000 and ordered to pay almost $33,000 in restitution to investors for unfair pricing of municipal bonds, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority reported Monday.

WASHINGTON - Two congressmen joined issuers in urging the Governmental Accounting Standards Board to retool or withdraw a proposal that would change how cash-strapped states and localities report pension liabilities, saying the new standards would prove destructive in the current economy.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced Monday that it will extend the terms of nine board members beyond Sept. 30, 2012, to ensure it has three classes of seven members with staggered terms.

WASHINGTON - House Financial Services Committee Republicans are urging the joint supercommittee to significantly scale back the Dodd-Frank Act and its derivatives provisions, as well as reduce the size of the community development block grant program.

SAN ANTONIO - State and local governments must rally to defend the federal tax exemption for munis, a market expert warned Thursday, saying only they can persuade members of Congress about its importance.

SAN ANTONIO - At its bond attorneys' workshop, the National Association of Bond Lawyers elected new officers, who will serve one-year terms, and announced four new board members.

SAN ANTONIO - Attorneys must read transaction documents carefully and think before signing them, Securities and Exchange Commission officials warned Thursday, citing an ongoing enforcement case against Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and one of its former executives.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board filed rule changes with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday to change the procedures for periodic compliance examinations of broker-dealers in the muni market.

WASHINGTON - House Democrats, in recommendations made to the joint deficit-reduction committee, have called for reinstating Build America Bonds, increasing funding for clean water state revolving funds, allowing the Bush income tax cuts to expire, and imposing a risk-based fee on big banks, securities firms and other financial companies.

SAN ANTONIO - A bond attorney urged colleagues here on Wednesday to do more for "market betterment" by supporting legislative efforts to give the Securities and Exchange Commission authority to develop "a uniform baseline disclosure rule."

WASHINGTON - Public sector pensions should consider disclosing their projected future contributions in order to fare better in the marketplace, a bond lawyers' group said in guidance circulated earlier this month.

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee warned Wednesday that "a national infrastructure bank as proposed" in President Obama's jobs bill "is dead on arrival in the House of Representatives."

State and local government officials are applauding House Ways and Means Committee members on the eve of an expected vote to approve legislation that would repeal a 3% withholding requirement that they warn would be costly and burdensome.

WASHINGTON - Kristin H. R. Franceschi, a partner at DLA Piper LLP in Baltimore, takes over the helm of the National Association of Bond Lawyers Wednesday amid uncertainty about how the municipal market will be affected by the European financial crisis, the U.S. political environment, and federal regulatory and legislative changes.

Money market funds are supposed to be ultra-safe, but new provisions have popped up in recent years that can make it difficult for holders of variable-rate and short-term securities to interpret and monitor.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's jobs council has made transportation investment one of five priorities for accelerating job growth and improving the country's long-term competitiveness.