Bankruptcy

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Schapiro said yesterday that she plans to take a "deep dive" into municipal securities in the coming months.

CHICAGO - Credit analysts say they are closely monitoring the situation in Pontiac, Mich., as officials try to fend off an attempt by the state to take over the beleaguered city's finances.

Rep. Gerald Connolly said yesterday that he will introduce legislation during the next few weeks to provide some sort of federal support for municipal bonds, and that the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee has promised the panel will consider it.

WASHINGTON - The municipal market should no longer be overseen by a self-regulatory organization led by securities and bank dealers, Thomas Doe, chief executive officer of Municipal Market Advisors and a former MSRB board member, told a Senate panel yesterday.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Florida's Citizens Property Insurance Corp. yesterday received authorization to move forward with the sale of up to $2.5 billion of bonds.

WASHINGTON - Market participants are continuing to push for a federal backstop for the roughly $500 billion variable-rate demand obligation market, warning that the availability of already-scarce bank liquidity facilities will continue to decline if issuers experience downgrades to their credit ratings in the coming months.

WASHINGTON - A Texas lawmaker has once again introduced legislation that would allow the North American Development Bank to guarantee tax-exempt bonds.

ORLANDO - To save costs, a number of underwriters are choosing to forgo having their counsel write so-called 10b-5 letters that certify there are no material omissions or misleading statements in the issuer's official statement for its municipal bonds. Instead, the underwriters are relying on such letters written by an issuer's disclosure counsel, bond lawyers meeting here said last week.

WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to hold a roundtable on April 15 to discuss its oversight of credit rating agencies, including its proposed rules on conflicts of interest, competition, and transparency.

ORLANDO - The Securities and Exchange Commission's municipal securities chief urged bond attorneys meeting here yesterday to disclose more information about the underlying borrower in certain conduit deals that are sold with short-term interest rates.

ORLANDO - The Treasury Department is hoping to release guidance within the next 30 days on how the direct payment option of the Build America Bonds program will work, as well as the amount of tax-credit bonds that each state will be able to issue under the economic stimulus law, a department official told attorneys meeting here yesterday.

WASHINGTON - The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing March 20 to promote aggressive federal and state investigations of financial fraud and other abuses, including auction-rate securities, the panel's chairman said yesterday.

CHICAGO - The fate of a $300 million bond-financed plan to expand Detroit's convention center - one of the city's chief economic assets - appears headed for court.

CHICAGO - Months after narrowly avoiding its first default, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is faced with another delinquent bond-fund borrower that has warned it would likely have a tough time making its full monthly debt payments this year due to the weak economy.

WASHINGTON - Standard & Poor's issued a white paper yesterday that embraced increased global oversight of rating agencies, including rules that require "robust" disclosure of rating criteria and methodologies and that address potential conflicts of interest in the ratings process.

WASHINGTON - The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board this week called for the Treasury Department to extend the termination date for its $50 billion temporary guarantee program for money market mutual funds to Sept. 18 from April 30.

WASHINGTON - More than a year after the auction-rate securities market collapsed, some $78 billion of illiquid municipal ARS remain outstanding, but a growing number of bond attorneys are pushing to use a new type of taxable bond program recently authorized by Congress to refund some of those securities.

BRADENTON, Fla. - Two Florida lawmakers have filed bills that would require water management districts to get voter approval through referendums before selling certificates of participation.

CHICAGO - Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has declared the city of Pontiac to be in a state of fiscal emergency and will likely appoint a manager to take over its finances after a hearing scheduled for next week.

BRADENTON, Fla. - A federal judge has scheduled a full hearing for March 24 on a motion by bond insurers and a bank trustee to appoint a receiver to oversee Jefferson County, Ala.,'s debt-ridden sewer system.