Commercial banking

Fieldman, Rolapp & Co. has acquired Orem, Utah-based municipal advisor G.L. Hicks, a healthcare finance specialist.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Thursday announced the members of its 2025 advisory groups.

Data-driven local governments and other public agencies might sound like a complex subject or something difficult to attain, but that could not be further from the truth.

Al Zelinka has more than 30 years of experience leading and serving local governments, public agencies and business improvement districts in consulting and public staff capacities.

Khala Stanfield has more than 10 years of experience in achieving large scale organizational growth by facilitating strategic planning processes, conducting qualitative analysis for strategy portfolios and developing fact-based recommendations for leaders to enable critical decisions.

Among the materials for lawmakers is a new report estimating the tax exemption saves issuers $824 billion through 2035.

New York Mayor Eric Adams, bolstered by lower-than-forecast spending on migrants, proposed a $114.5 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The muni market saw a record $507.585 billion of debt issued in 2024, up 31.8% from $385.061 billion in 2023, according to LSEG data. 

The top 10 advisors accounted for $249.421 billion of par or 59.3% of the total issuance with municipal advisors.

New York boasts four of the top 10 issuers, followed by California with two and one a piece for Florida, Massachusetts, Washington and New Jersey.

With losses expected to be measured in the tens or hundreds of billions, the municipal finance industry begins to take stock of the Los Angeles-area wildfires.

Daily report for January 17, 2025

The state will try to convince the rating agency to lift its debt to AA, to match the rating others have assigned.

Munis "responded in part to a better UST session [Wednesday] but weren't in a position from a supply standpoint to attempt to match the 10-15 basis point rally in taxables," said Kim Olsan, a senior fixed income portfolio manager at NewSquare Capital.

Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent sparred with the Senate Finance Committee over the future direction of fiscal policy in the Trump administration that will be trying to tackle major tax legislation.

It could be the year's largest unrated municipal bond deal.

Trey Tagert is an adjunct professor of banking and financial services at Collin College. He is also the vice president of fair and responsible lending at HTLF Bank.