SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission's spending would be beefed up and its focus on retail investors and self-regulators in the municipal market would be increased under the fiscal 2019 budget request made public Monday.

The Bond Dealers of America is proposing a multi-faceted "business plan" that would give dealers more time to comply with a rule requiring them to disclose their markups and markdowns to retail customers.

MA and broker-dealer compliance with relatively new rules, as well as the MSRB and FINRA, will be in the spotlight.

All but one of the remaining defendants in the Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Ramapo, N.Y., have agreed to settlement terms, according to court documents.

SIFMA is urging the MSRB to be more forthcoming in providing interpretive guidance to dealers and other regulated entities.

The first meeting of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Committee focused mostly on corporate bonds and barely addressed the municipal securities market.

Best execution, suitability, and other areas of concern for the municipal as well as corporate markets are among FINRA regulatory and exam priorities for 2018.

The SEC's first muni enforcement case of the year shows its willingness to use the Dodd Frank Act to punish some breaches of fiduciary duty that hadn't yet been spelled out by the MSRB.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is looking for five people knowledgeable about the muni market to sit on its board starting Oct. 1.

The Board said "filtering" bids and offers can hurt retail investors, liquidity, and market efficiency.

The SEC's Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Committee has liquidity on the agenda for its first open meeting, scheduled for Jan. 11.

Regulators will focus on helping dealers and municipal advisors comply with recently adopted rules and will also monitor how tax reform legislation impacts muni market practices.

The SEC's muni enforcement focus in 2018 will include offering and disclosure-related fraud, broker-dealer abuses, municipal advisor misconduct, public corruption, and pay-to-play practices.

The SEC has approved a change to increase the level of information the MSRB collects about certain muni fund securities.

The SEC is investigating after the school district's bond management practices were questioned in an audit.

Navnoor Kang, the former director of fixed income for the New York State Common Retirement Fund, has pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges.

The former mayor of Markham, Ill., solicited and received a $75,000 bribe from a contractor in return for giving him work on a bond-financed project.

A federal judge has barred Ramapo, N.Y., from issuing new bonds for three years unless it hires an independent disclosure counsel.

The SEC went into its expanding toolbox to bring fraud charges against Oyster Bay, N.Y., and its former top elected official for hiding the existence and potential impact of side deals with a businessman.

SEC takes stock of fiscal 2017 in enforcement and finds 4% of its cases were public finance-related.