Washington

WASHINGTON — Court documents filed in class action and other lawsuits by issuers’ lawyers who were briefed by attorneys at Bank of America — the one firm that is cooperating with the Justice Department’s antitrust probe in return for indemnity from criminal charges — present a disturbing picture of alleged widespread collusion between dozens of firms involved with municipal investment contracts and derivatives.

WASHINGTON — A large local school district that cannot issue the qualified school construction bonds the Internal Revenue Service allocated to it will lose the allocation unless it transfers it to the state, which can then carry it forward indefinitely, an IRS attorney said last week.

The federal grand jury's indictment against Beverly Hills-based CDR Financial Products Inc., its founder David Rubin, and current and former officials at the firm for allegedly rigging bids for investment and derivatives contracts in return for kickbacks could be just the tip of the iceberg, market participants said yesterday.

States will struggle with finances in fiscal 2011 just as much as they have this fiscal year and last fiscal year, panelists said at a meeting here Friday sponsored by Tax Analysts.

A major component of the compliance questionnaire the Internal Revenue Service plans to send to issuers of Build America Bonds will examine how issuers are complying with the rule that all BAB project proceeds go towards capital expenditures, an IRS official said here Friday.

WASHINGTON — Congress last night was poised to approve a second stopgap measure to fund the federal government, including transportation and bond-related programs, for another seven weeks.

PHOENIX — The issue of how much information should be disclosed for certain variable-rate demand obligations has put the National Association of Bond Layers at loggerheads with the Securities and Exchange Commission staff for years. The ongoing dispute boiled over once again during NABL’s Bond Attorneys Workshop here this week.

PHOENIX — Any state or local government that issues Build America Bonds in the next fiscal year can expect to receive a compliance query from the Internal Revenue Service, according to Clifford Gannett, director of its tax-exempt bond office.

WASHINGTON — Some municipal issuers and their advocates yesterday came out swinging against the Securities and Exchange Commission.

WASHINGTON — Financial advisers in the municipal market would have to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission under an amendment added to the Investor Protection Act of 2009 yesterday by House Financial Services Committee members.

Congress should repeal the Tower Amendment and other securities law exemptions for municipal issuers so that the Securities and Exchange Commission can require them to comply with certain disclosure requirements as well as with generally accepted governmental accounting standards, SEC commissioner Elisse Walter said Wednesday night.

The federal government is expected to forego more than $26 billion in annual revenue each year from fiscal 2008 through fiscal 2012 because of what tax-exempt bond financing of infrastructure projects costs federal coffers, the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation said in a report this week.

WASHINGTON — Democratic and Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee yesterday espoused completely different views about the effect of an amendment added to the credit rating agency bill that focuses on ratings of municipal securities.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will likely seek ­legislation “sometime next year” to expand its authority over the municipal market, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro told reporters yesterday after speaking at the Securities Industry and ­Financial Markets Association’s annual conference in New York.

WASHINGTON — What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, the municipal market was being tossed about in the throes of an historic financial maelstrom that ultimately swallowed up the likes of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns & Co., and muni bond insurers’ triple-A ratings.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department yesterday announced that it had allocated $2.2 billion in clean renewable energy bond authority to finance 805 projects by public power providers, cooperative electric companies, and governmental entities.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is auditing $61.3 million of auction-rate securities issued in 2005 by the Coastal Bend Health Facilities Development Corp. of Corpus Christi, Tex.

WASHINGTON — The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is not opposed to legislation that would require the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to have a majority of public members, but wants Congress to make sure they have financial expertise and that the MSRB has more time for the transition, the new head of its Washington office said last week.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board yesterday announced several improvements to its Electronic Municipal Market Access Web site, including a new search feature that will allow market participants to more easily find specific continuing disclosure documents.

WASHINGTON — The District of ­Columbia expects today to competitively sell $500 million of general obligation tax revenue anticipation notes, its largest note offering ever, according to city officials.