Washington

For the first time in the municipal securities market, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged a municipal advisory firm, its chief executive officer, and two of its employees for breaching their fiduciary duty by failing to disclose a conflict of interest to a municipal client.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday introduced another bill that would give Puerto Rico broad debt restructuring capabilities.

Washington electric utility Energy Northwest will sell nearly $500 million of refunding bonds later this month.

Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders released a plan for Puerto Rico on Monday that proposes extending Chapter 9 bankruptcy protections to the commonwealth’s municipalities and contains several healthcare and environmental initiatives.

A two-year reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration under consideration this week by a Senate committee would provide more federal funding for runways and other infrastructure while keeping the revenue source used to back bonds financing terminal projects at its current level.

Bond lawyers on Thursday criticized the political subdivision rules recently proposed by the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service, claiming they would trample states’ rights, alter the landscape for public financing, and jeopardize the tax-exempt status of millions of dollars of municipal bonds.

Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla said a senior member of U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s legislative delegation reaffirmed a commitment to prompt action that would give the commonwealth the tools for a debt restructuring.

Washington State Treasurer James McIntire wants Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service to create a safe harbor for competitive sales of muni bonds in their re-proposed issue price rules.

A $1 trillion shortfall in public pension plans is rooted in poor governance, think tank Manhattan Institute for Policy Research reported.

Organizers of a muni conference that features academics, market practitioners, public officials and regulations are rebranding the event and moving it from Boston to Washington.

With one month to go until opening day, Standard & Poor’s Rating Services on Friday raised its underlying rating on the District of Columbia’s baseball park revenue bonds to BBB+ from BBB.

States will share $1.15 billion of federal funding for freight-related highway projects in fiscal 2016.

Washington’s historic Arlington Memorial Bridge over the Potomac will be closed in 2021 without $250 million of repairs.

The first bill Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed this session may be a big step for the state toward complying with a court order that has been hanging over its finances for years.

Federal officials expect to have construction agreement with private partner for a new FBI headquarters by end of 2016.

Reps. Randy Hultgren, R-Ill., and Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., have launched a Municipal Finance Caucus made up of House members from both political parties who will fight to protect the tax-exempt status of municipal debt and ensure there is a robust market for municipal securities.

Understanding your culture is a priority for the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority. While some doubt FINRA can do this, there are steps your firm can take to demonstrate adherence to rules and regulations that have an impact on the objective "indicators" of FINRA's cultural assessment.

Lisa Washburn, the new chair of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, wants NFMA this year to become more proactive in collaborative industry efforts to improve municipal bond disclosure and address changes in the municipal market.

The Internal Revenue Service is preliminarily challenging the tax-exempt status of bonds issued in December 2010 by the Three Rivers Solid Waste Authority in South Carolina to provide permanent financing for a system to treat and deliver methane gas from a landfill site to Kimberly-Clark Corp.

Legislators are coalescing around a federal oversight authority for Puerto Rico that could take concerns over the commonwealth’s debt, pension, and economic crises and forge unique solutions using congressionally approved oversight and restructuring capabilities.