Washington

It will take five years to turn the new federal financial reform law into rules and regulation, an industry expert from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association said last week.

WASHINGTON — At the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is moving forward with rule changes for priority of orders in primary offerings. The changes are more in line with the original proposal the MSRB floated late last year rather than a pared-down version it agreed to in April.

WASHINGTON — The House ethics committee’s investigative panel is alleging that former Ways and Means Committee chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has violated ethics rules.

WASHINGTON — Congress only has a very small window of time early next year to approve a multi-year transportation bill or it will risk losing the opportunity to do so for another two years, congressional aides said at a meeting here yesterday.

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have asked the Federal Housing Finance Agency to consider allowing a pilot program for Property Assessed Clean Energy bonds that would allow for the gathering of data on how the programs affect home loans, a point of concern for the regulator.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is considering temporarily expanding its 15-member board, possibly by two to four members, as it transitions to majority-public membership by Oct. 1 to comply with the new financial regulatory reform law.

WASHINGTON — President Obama yesterday signed into law financial regulatory reform legislation that will make sweeping changes in the municipal and other markets, saying it will prevent a reoccurrence of the “breakdown” that caused the current “severe recession.”

EddieTech, a private nonprofit organization based here, is working to put together the first national pooled offering of direct-pay qualified school construction and qualified zone academy bonds for districts across the country.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to propose new rules designed to revamp the sales and distribution fees some mutual funds charge and to provide better disclosures of them to investors.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering holding five field hearings between September and January as part of a nationwide inquiry on the municipal market that is expected to lead to recommendations for statutory and regulatory changes to better protect investors.

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Schapiro told lawmakers Tuesday that the agency needs to hire 800 people to implement provisions in the financial regulatory reform legislation that President Obama is expected to sign into law today.

The Senate may vote on a multi-year Federal Aviation Administration bill this week that could include an increase in the cap on passenger facilities charges, a key lawmaker and others said Tuesday at a meeting here sponsored by the American Association of Airport Executives.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is soliciting public comments through Aug. 9 on a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposal to change its EMMA site to reflect new materiality standards for continuing disclosures as well as changes to a list of event-based disclosures that borrowers may voluntarily submit to the system.

The Cinco Municipal Utility District No. 1, located near Houston, has disclosed that the Internal Revenue Service is auditing $5.2 million of revenue bonds it issued in 2002 to finance water and sewer infrastructure.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and 29 other members of Congress have introduced legislation that would prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from stifling state programs that allow localities to sell bonds to finance energy-efficient ­upgrades made by ­homeowners.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A measure to impose a state income tax in Washington has qualified for the November ballot, according to the secretary of state’s office.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined three firms a total of $92,500, mostly for municipal bond rule violations, and barred a former principal of a firm from the market for falsifying investment statements for a widow to make it look like she owned muni bonds when she did not.

WASHINGTON — Former Southwest Securities Inc. banker John F. Kendrick has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $10,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he willfully violated, and caused the firm to violate, Rule G-37 by making significant political contributions to Massachusetts Treasurer Timothy Cahill.

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 60 to 39 Thursday to approve sweeping changes to the financial regulatory system that will significantly alter the landscape of municipal securities regulation.

WASHINGTON — Congress is unlikely to authorize the creation of a national infrastructure bank before next summer, despite its potential to spur more private investment in transportation, water, and energy projects, transportation stakeholders from the public and private sectors said yesterday.