Washington

WASHINGTON — A federal court in New Jersey has approved UBS Financial Services Inc.’s $47.2 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over bid-rigging of municipal bond-related contracts as well as the amounts of restitution that are to go to each of 105 state and local issuers that were defrauded.

CHICAGO — Last year’s dire predictions that a coming record wave of expiring bank credit facilities would tax the municipal market did not come to fruition in the first quarter, according to a new report from Moody’s Investors Service.

CHARLESTON — A pension expert panned federal lawmakers’ efforts to increase oversight of state and local governments’ public pension plans.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire signed new legislation into law this month that regulates the ability of out-of-state bond issuers to sell private-activity bonds for in-state projects.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Market experts on Thursday painted a bleak picture of the municipal securities market over the next few years, saying the high bond volume of the past six years is gone and unlikely to return.

WASHINGTON — House Ways and Means Committee panel members, researchers, and muni market participants debated the merits and faults of a public-pension disclosure bill Thursday at a hearing that also focused on tax-exempt financing and pension obligation bonds.

The House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would delay the implementation of rules on municipal and other derivatives imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act by at least 18 months, until after the next presidential election.

WASHINGTON — UBS Financial Services Inc. has agreed to pay more than $160 million to settle antitrust, securities fraud, tax and other charges with three federal agencies and 25 state attorneys general for rigging bids for at least 100 reinvestment transactions in 36 states, threatening the tax-exempt status of more than $16.5 billion of municipal bonds.

CHARLESTON — Congress should give the Securities and Exchange Commission the authority to set baseline standards for issuers’ primary and secondary market municipal securities disclosures, the SEC commissioner charged with conducting a review of the muni market said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — Municipal and other market participants yesterday urged federal regulators to consider allowing state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, utilities and other end-users in derivatives transactions to provide one set of required disclosures that could be updated when material changes occur.

WASHINGTON — Though several deficit-cutting commissions are recommending Congress and the Obama administration overhaul the tax code and cut tax expenditures, such as the tax-exempt interest from municipal bonds, the head of the Tax Foundation said Tuesday that the budgetary cost of munis is relatively small.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $20 million of Series A bonds issued in December 2005 by the City School District of Middletown in Orange County, N.Y. The audit was disclosed Monday in an event notice the issuer filed with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s online EMMA system.

A majority of the nation’s mayors want the new highway bill coming from Congress to emphasize streets and bridges over highways and to provide financing tools such as Build America Bonds, TIFIA loans or a national infrastructure bank.

SAN FRANCISCO — A push for a constitutional amendment to reduce Washington’s debt limit has run into a political roadblock.

WASHINGTON — States are ramping up pressure on online-only retailers to pay billions of dollars in state sales taxes, hoping the funds will help bring their tax collections into the 21st century.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets’ Association is urging the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to withdraw its draft broker’s brokers rule and leave the existing regulatory and enforcement scheme intact.

WASHINGTON — A federal cap on tax-exempt bonds could gradually wean investors and issuers off the muni market and toward a permanent, expanded Build America Bond market that has a flexible subsidy rate, a new report from the Center for American Progress argues.

WASHINGTON — With financial regulators combing through pension reporting by state and local governments, the National Association of Bond Lawyers unveiled guidance Monday to boost issuers’ disclosure practices.

WASHINGTON — A House Ways and Means Committee panel plans to hold a hearing next Thursday on a bill that would prohibit state and local governments from issuing tax-exempt bonds unless they meet certain pension disclosure requirements.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Wednesday lowered its forecast for economic growth in 2011, while also lowering its expectation for the unemployment rate this year, as chairman Ben Bernanke warned the U.S. budget deficit is the “most important economic problem” the country faces.