Washington

The Internal Revenue Service appears to be escalating its audit of $15 million of school improvement bonds that were issued by Cave Creek Unified School District No. 93 of Maricopa County, Ariz., in 2006 to finance a renovation project.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board's proposed changes in public pension accounting and reporting standards, if adopted, will not have immediate credit implications, but probably would make the reporting of year-to-year unfunded pension liabilities more volatile, Standard & Poor's will say in a report Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — Researchers for the Center on Law and Public Finance are refuting the notion that partisanship has dominated the issuance of Build America Bonds.

WASHINGTON — Since the Securities and Exchange ­Commission and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rolled out separate registration systems for municipal advisers this fall, there has been ­widespread confusion over the requirement that advisers register with both regulators.

WASHINGTON —The Senate is expected Tuesday to vote on a tax compromise measure without amendments, including one by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that would have extended the Build America Bond program through 2011 with a 32% subsidy payment.

The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $117.45 million of variable-rate demand utilities system subordinate-lien refunding revenue bonds that were issued in 2004 by Colorado Springs, Colo., for Colorado Springs Utilities to refund some 1994 bonds.

State and local budget challenges will put pressure on municipal credits and will drag overall economic growth next year, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s semiannual economic projections released Monday.

WASHINGTON — Federal transportation officials Thursday reclaimed $1.195 billion of high-speed and intercity passenger rail grants from Ohio and Wisconsin. The funds will be parceled out to several states, the U.S. Department of Transportation said after warning last month that incoming Republican governors in the two states must use the funds for rail or lose them entirely.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Thursday filed a six-count indictment against three former UBS bankers — Peter Ghavami, Gary Heinz and Michael Welty — for participating in fraud schemes and conspiracies in connection with the bidding of investment and other contracts for municipal bonds from as early as 2001 until 2006.

WASHINGTON — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission Thursday unanimously agreed to propose pay-to-play restrictions and other business-conduct standards for swap dealers and major swap participants working with “special entities” such as states and localities. The pay-to-play restrictions mirror new Securities and Exchange Commission rules for investment advisers.

WASHINGTON — The $1.2 trillion continuing resolution the House approved Wednesday to keep federal agencies and programs funded through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 would increase funding for financial regulators and extend transportation and aviation funding as well as nuclear loan guarantees.

WASHINGTON — The new slate of House Republicans picked to preside over financial services staked out an ambitious set of policy goals Thursday, saying they intend to downsize or dismantle the government mandates supported by their Democratic predecessors.

Supporters of Build America Bonds lobbied hard Wednesday to convince lawmakers and administration officials to extend the program for another year as it appeared possible that any compromise tax legislation might not contain any municipal bond-related provisions.

The Justice Department has filed a new indictment against CDR Financial Products and three current and former officials that expands on some of the original October 2009 charges against them to include so-called honest services fraud — a criminal statute that survived a Supreme Court challenge earlier this year and is often used to prosecute wrongdoing by public officials.

Two bipartisan groups are pressing federal lawmakers and the president to get cracking on a solution to the funding crisis troubling the nation's transportation sector. They warned that Congress needs to find a new revenue source instead of leaning on proposals for a national infrastructure bank or increased privatization.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is initiating a study of the municipal market with an emphasis on pre-transaction pricing efficiency and liquidity, Securities and Exchange Commission member Elisse Walter announced Tuesday.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch agreed to pay more than $137 million, as well as to take remedial steps, in unprecedented enforcement actions announced Tuesday to settle charges from four regulators.

Rep. Spencer Bachus was formally selected by the Republican Steering Committee on Tuesday to serve as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee next year, beating back a challenge from Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif.

While federal lawmakers are nearing a compromise on tax legislation that would extend many expired and expiring tax provisions as well as the Bush-era tax cuts, it is not certain the measure will continue the popular Build America Bond program, sources said.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans to propose a draft pay-to-play rule for municipal advisers by the end of the month that will mirror existing political contribution restrictions imposed on dealers under its Rule G-37, chairman Michael Bartolotta told reporters in a conference call Monday morning.