Washington

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.

WASHINGTON — The Regional Bond Dealers Association has retained the law firm of Nixon Peabody LLP to help it develop legislative and regulatory strategies and proposals for municipal bonds and fixed-income products. The group plans to hire two lobbyists and policy analysts later this year, Mike Nicholas, RBDA’s chief executive officer said yesterday.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board yesterday filed a new rule with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would allow it to collect a flat $60 “development fee” on examinations taken by municipal securities representatives and principals, as well as muni fund securities “limited principals,” to demonstrate competence in their areas of work.

WASHINGTON — The American Bar Association Section of Taxation sent a report to Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service officials last week outlining its thoughts on various issues tied to stripping the tax credits from tax-credit bonds and selling them separately.

WASHINGTON — The United States faces an immense challenge with an economy expected to be $2 trillion smaller than what it should be over the next five years and growing unemployment that is likely to last “for at least some time,” according to Felix Rohatyn, the veteran investment banker who helped save New York City from bankruptcy in the 1970s.

DALLAS — The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program is likely here to stay, though it is unclear how much funding it will receive in the future, federal officials said here yesterday.

WASHINGTON — Michael Mundaca, President Obama’s nominee to become the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary of tax policy, told the Senate Finance Committee yesterday that the Build America Bonds program is “too successful to simply allow it to expire.”

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission announced yesterday that it has settled securities fraud and other charges against JPMorgan Securities Inc. and is pursuing charges against two of the firm’s former managing directors, Charles LeCroy and Douglas MacFaddin, in connection with muni bond and swap transactions done with Jefferson County, Ala.

The House Financial Services Committee yesterday voted 41 to 28 to approve a bill that would require financial advisers in the municipal market to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and direct the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to have a majority of public members.

WASHINGTON — Treasury Department officials are warning state and local housing finance agencies that the Obama administration’s recently unveiled temporary bond purchase program is oversubscribed and that agencies will likely receive less assistance than they requested as a result.

WASHINGTON — Two prominent industry groups are raising strong objections to draft changes the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposed for its Rule G-37 on political contributions that would require dealer-affiliated banks and bank holding company political action committees to disclose the contributions they make to issuer officials.