Washington

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration yesterday announced the formation of a multi-agency task force that will investigate and prosecute “significant” financial crimes and civil violations tied to the financial crisis and the government’s economic recovery programs.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are pushing for a second economic stimulus bill, and transportation advocates hope it will contain funding for infrastructure without further delaying a multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has six “significant deficiencies” that prevented it from having effective internal controls over its financial reporting as of Sept. 30, 2009, the Government Accountability Office warned in an audit released this week.

WASHINGTON — State and local housing finance agency officials generally applauded the allocations they received from the Treasury Department for the new-issue bond purchase and temporary credit and liquidity programs, saying they were close to what they requested and should boost ailing housing programs.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority censured and fined four firms a total of $175,500 for municipal and other rule violations, including $55,000 against Morgan Stanley for failing to report municipal and corporate securities transactions in a timely manner.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board would have more leeway to select members on a 15-member majority-public board under a revised draft of financial regulatory reform legislation released yesterday by the Senate Banking Committee.

WASHINGTON — Brazos Student Finance Corp. wants to be the first student loan lender to ask institutional investors to voluntarily tender, at a discount, illiquid auction-rate securities in exchange for new floating-rate notes, about a year after a much larger and more complex offer failed.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy is asking governments and development finance authorities to participate in the first stage of a new federal loan guarantee program for alternative energy projects, which is expected to be used in conjunction with municipal bonds and will guarantee at least $50 billion of debt.

State, regional, and local transportation toll authorities will steadily issue debt as the economy recovers in order to pay for infrastructure maintenance and construction projects that cannot be funded from state and federal coffers, Moody’s Investors Service predicted in a report issued late last week.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission will likely vote to adopt final changes to its Rule 15c2-12 on disclosure “very early” next year and will then meet with lawmakers to see what can be done to expand its authority over the muni market, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro said this week.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission’s settlement last week with JPMorgan over payments former bankers made to get municipal bond and swap business from Jefferson County, Ala., as well as other recent enforcement actions, show the SEC is not afraid to pursue complex and difficult financial crimes, the agency’s head of enforcement said yesterday.

WASHINGTON — California tops the list of 10 states that have been so severely hit by the recession there could be “potentially damaging consequences for the entire country,” the Pew Center on the States warned in a new report.

The Port of Seattle’s commissioners Tuesday agreed to move forward with a solicitation for financial advisory services.

WASHINGTON — State budget cuts will cause a drop of nearly one percentage point in the gross domestic product in fiscal year 2011 unless the federal government extends its aid to states beyond Dec. 31, 2010, when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act programs expire, economists and budget analysts warned yesterday.

WASHINGTON — Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd yesterday unveiled a massive draft regulatory reform bill that envisions a more independent and powerful Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

WASHINGTON — The top lawyer for the House’s tax-writing committee said yesterday that it is a given the Build America Bonds program will be extended beyond its current deadline at the end of 2010 and that there is a strong argument for it to be made permanent as soon as possible.

WASHINGTON — Market participants are pushing for states or the federal government to take a “programmatic” rather than a piecemeal or project-by-project approach to financing infrastructure through public-private partnerships.

SAN FRANCISCO — Voters in Washington State last week rejected a ballot measure to limit governments’ revenue growth, while voters in Seattle split nearly down the middle in trying to pick their next mayor.

David Rubin, founder of CDR Financial Products Inc., and two colleagues on Friday pleaded not guilty to criminal antitrust, wire fraud and other charges stemming from an alleged conspiracy to rig bids for municipal investment agreements and derivatives contracts for kickbacks.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department Friday rejected a proposal for Fannie Mae to sell $2.6 billion, or roughly half, of its unused low-income housing tax credits to two unidentified investors believed to be Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.