Bankruptcy

The U.S. Supreme Court last week ruled in favor of Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray last week when it said in a unanimous ruling that federal courts must defer to state courts on challenges to state law.

With the final selection of jury members expected to be completed yesterday, the stage was set for opening statements in the federal corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his brother Rob.

ATLANTA — Government Finance Officers Association members are scheduled to vote this morning on a policy statement calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to maintain a stable, $1.00 net asset value per share of money market funds and to scrap plans to consider a floating NAV.

ATLANTA — A Treasury Department official Monday said that federal regulators already have attempted to assuage muni market participants’ worries about how to determine issue price for Build America Bonds in guidance issued in April, even though issuers continue to air concerns about the lack of guidance.

WASHINGTON — With lawmakers from both chambers of Congress set to begin hammering out a single financial regulatory reform bill on Wednesday, one of the most contentious municipal-market issues to be worked out centers on who will regulate non-dealer financial advisers, swap advisers and other market intermediaries.

The Jefferson County Commission Tuesday agreed to hire a New York law firm to defend the county against a lawsuit filed by Syncora Guarantee Inc. on April 29.

Arbitration panels for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority have ordered Citigroup to pay roughly $2.2 million to investors who lost money in one of the bank’s municipal bond arbitrage vehicles.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A California Senate committee has approved a watered-down version of a bill designed to make it harder for cities or other local agencies to file for Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy.

A state court on Wednesday allowed the Wisconsin insurance commissioner to proceed with his plan to allow bond insurer Ambac Assurance Corp. to imminently settle claims owed to major banks on structured finance product transactions.

Holders of Central Falls, R.I., debt will get paid — at least that’s the plan, according to the court-appointed temporary receiver who is now running things.

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday unanimously approved amendments to its Rule 15c2-12 on disclosure that, like the ones proposed in July, will increase the quantity and timeliness of municipal issuers’ continuing disclosures.

Alabama federal Judge Scott Coogler last week denied a request from Montgomery bond dealer Bill Blount that Coogler reconsider his order denying Blount more time to report to prison so he could continue working on a $1 million forfeiture as part of his plea bargain.

CHICAGO — The trustee who represents owners of $46.6 million of taxable tribal gaming revenue bonds issued for the Lac du Flambeau tribe in Wisconsin is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that the tribe is not responsible for repaying the debt because the trust indenture’s structure required federal approval.

WASHINGTON — As the two chambers of Congress begin to hammer out a single financial regulatory reform bill over the next several weeks, industry groups have mixed views about a provision in the Senate bill that would prohibit banks from engaging in proprietary trading but exclude municipal, Treasury and federal agency securities from the ban.

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The ranks of California issuers filing civil suits in connection with an alleged bid-rigging conspiracy for guaranteed investment contracts continues to grow.

The Harrisburg Authority will miss a $3.2 million June 1 payment to bondholders of incinerator debt sold in 2003 that helped finance upgrades to the Pennsylvania facility.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censured and fined Piper ­Jaffray & Co. $700,000 for failing to retain about 4.3 million e-mails over a six-year period and for not alerting FINRA that it was having problems with its e-mail retention and retrieval.

WASHINGTON — The recovery zone bond program would double in size to $50 billion and Build America Bonds could be used to do current refundings of existing BABs under a new tax and jobs bill released late Thursday evening by leaders of the House and Senate tax-writing committees.

WASHINGTON — As lawmakers in the Senate and House begin to resolve the differences in their separate financial regulatory reform bills this week, market participants are hoping the finished product will exclude several controversial provisions they say could eliminate the municipal derivatives market.

WASHINGTON — The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board yesterday filed a request with the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow it to post credit ratings directly on the board’s Electronic Municipal Market Access site.