News and Information from Bond Buyer

If you haven't met Suzanne Shank you should. She is the chair and CEO of Siebert Williams Shank & Co. LLC, the nation’s largest female-and minority-owned, privately held finance firm, which she started with the legendary Muriel Siebert. Join us in an intimate conversation and hear her perspective on some of the most critical issues of the day.

Without the benefit of a larger new-issue calendar, secondary trading is likely to continue the theme of the final two months of 2020: more bidders than bonds.

LACMA, one of Los Angeles' most prominent museums, will refund debt and move forward on construction of a building for its permanent collection.

Texas saw sales tax revenue fall 5% in December, ending a dark year of pandemic and lower oil prices.

Park Place at Elmhurst would restructure and redeem $141 million of bonds issued to exit its 2016 Chapter 11 under a plan pending before a bankruptcy court.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers wrote to the IRS in November 2019 asking for a significant reduction in the fee.

As it reaches its 50th year in business, Ramirez ranks 15th industry wide among all negotiated and competitive underwriters with 47 deals totaling $6.1 billion in 2020.

Lynnette Kelly started new positions at the Financial Accounting Foundation and at the Milken Institute.

From the Centennials to the COVID generation, the municipal market's demographics will change dramatically in the next decade as will the way investors view investing in munis.

Bel Air Investment Advisors is Hightower's 14th and largest acquisition in a year, with $8 billion of assets under management including $2.8 billion of municipals.

Paul Herman and Adam Mason of HIP Investor examine environmental, social and governance risks, ratings disconnects, transparency needs and HIP's deep dive into hospital systems. Paul Burton hosts. Recorded Dec. 14. (25 minutes).

The $125 million deal from the Colorado Housing Finance Authority carries a third-party social bond opinion from Kestrel Verifiers.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans says monetary policy will need to remain “accommodative for quite a while,” since inflation won’t hit a 2% average for “a long time.”

In a year in which 16 states lost population, Texas' growth is expected to stand out in the belated 2020 Census.

Robbi Jones, principal at Kipling Jones & Co., received that ruling on appeal from FINRA’s National Adjudicatory Council late last month.

Sources say pricing of bonds will be a prevalent issue in 2021 following comments made by bipartisan SEC commissioners.

During 2020, our society has been faced with an economic crisis, health crisis, social justice crisis and environmental crisis. The pandemic has rapidly changed how banks engage with customers and employees; accelerating the shift from in-person interactions to digital engagements. Successfully leading a digital transformation requires much more than smart technology choices, culture is key.

The new-issue calendar builds from almost nothing to $2.4 billion in the first week of the New Year, with deals ranging from education to taxables to social bonds on tap for investors.

The deal is rated BBB-plus by Fitch Ratings, Baa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and BBB by S&P Global Ratings.

The municipal market was punctuated by a global pandemic, a controversial U.S. presidential election, and volatility but managed through to end with historic issuance records and better-than-expected returns.