Commercial banking

Municipal market advocates believe it won't take many muni bond "champions" to protect the financing tool.

Midwest market participants and researchers say the loss of the municipal bond tax exemption could cost the region's many smaller issuers market access.

Daily report for April 09, 2025

Weakness in the muni market has been partly amplified by ETF selling; high-grade yields rose more than 60 basis points on parts of the curve over two sessions.

Rathi Murthy is the Chief Technology Officer at Varo Bank, the first nationally chartered all-digital consumer bank in the United States. In this role, she leads the company's end-to-end technology strategy, overseeing the design and development of secure, scalable, and AI-powered digital banking platforms. Her leadership is instrumental in advancing Varo's mission to build inclusive, accessible, and real-time financial solutions for millions of consumers.

A seasoned technology executive, Rathi brings over 25 years of experience leading innovation and digital transformation at some of the world's most recognized technology and financial services companies. Prior to joining Varo, she served as Chief Technology Officer and President of Expedia Product & Technology at Expedia Group, where she modernized the company's global travel infrastructure, integrating AI-driven personalization, modular architecture, and advanced cloud capabilities across its family of brands.

Earlier, she held executive leadership roles at Verizon Media and Gap Inc., where she led enterprise cloud migrations, e-commerce platform evolution, and large-scale product delivery initiatives across global markets.

Rathi also served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Enterprise Growth at American Express, where she was responsible for the technology strategy and operations of the Serve platform and a suite of prepaid products including Bluebird. 

Rathi's early career includes engineering leadership roles at eBay, Yahoo!, Sun Microsystems, and WebMD, where she consistently delivered improvements in platform stability, operational agility, and customer experience.

In addition to her executive work, Murthy is a board member at PagerDuty, Inc., a leader in digital operations management, and serves as an External Expert Advisor to the University of San Francisco's Board of Trustees Committee on Information Technology Strategy. She is also a regular speaker at industry events and leadership forums, offering thought leadership on topics such as fintech innovation, integrating AI, platform transformation, and executive technology leadership.

Follow Rathi Murthy on LinkedIn and X. 

The non-profit climate advocacy organization called for better disclosure on climate risks and adaptation efforts as the prevalence of natural disasters grows.

The utility said it will appeal the judge's action, citing grave concerns about its impact on the Denver area's water supply in the wake of floods and drought.

A new law increasing the bond authorization responds to federal pressures and increased anticipated prison construction costs.

Airport executives pushed lawmakers for streamlined funding, a boost in the passenger facility charge, and preserving tax-exempt bonds.

Guy Baker, CFP, Ph.D., is the founder of Wealth Teams Alliance in Irvine, California.

He is a member of the Forbes 250 Top Financial Security Professionals list and is author of  "Maximize the RedZone," a guide for business owners, as well as "The Great Wealth Erosion," "Manage Markets, Not Stocks" and "Investment Alchemy." He received the 2019 John Newton Russell Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in insurance.

The judge cited "substantial evidence" for charges of collusion among the banks to fix interest rates on millions of variable-rate demand bonds.

Washington, D.C.'s ability to spend the money in its approved budget remains in doubt as a congressional recess looms, though President Trump signaled support.

A new S&P upgrade and one last year from Moody's burnish the Colorado Statewide Bridge and Tunnel Enterprise ahead of a $212 million revenue bond deal.

In March, BlackRock debuted a new tax-exempt municipal interval fund, IMTC inked partnerships with Franklin Templeton and T. Rowe Price and more.

Daily report for April 08, 2025