Enforcement

One of the biggest investor concerns about unfunded public pension liabilities, is whether a government's payment obligations to retirees will compete with debt repayment, according to a Wells Fargo report issued Wednesday.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered four firms to pay more than $53,000 in fines and restitution to customers for violations of municipal securities fair-dealing, pricing and other rules.

The IRS is auditing $100.89 million of state capital project bonds that the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation issued in October 2006.

Attorneys for Miami have proposed a settlement to head off federal civil charges proposed by Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed a similar case against the city in the 1990s.

The federal judge assigned to the upcoming bid-rigging trial against three former UBS Financial Services Inc. bankers has struck down requests to drop all six criminal counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, and witness tampering.

The SEC will be asked to allow federal civil charges to be filed against Miami for failing to disclose serious budget problems in its bond offerings.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered five firms to pay $117,425 in fines and restitution to customers for violation of municipal securities trade, pricing and supervisory rules.

A group of Senate Democrats is urging the U.S. Department of Justice and federal banking and securities regulators to investigate allegations that domestic and foreign banks manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, which is used as a benchmark in municipal bond-related swaps and other financial products.

Lawyers for former UBS Financial Services Inc. bankers Peter Ghavami, Gary Heinz and Michael Welty requested permission from the court to present evidence on municipal bond transactions other than 38 specific deals highlighted by prosecutors.

Senate and House committees are looking into allegations that banks manipulated Libor, the London Interbank Offered Rate that is used by financial institutions to set interest rates for financial products, including interest rate swaps used by municipal bond issuers to hedge variable rate debt.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is releasing draft rule changes that would prohibit municipal securities dealers from consenting to amendments in bond authorizing documents, except in very limited circumstances.

To make more new-issue data available, the MSRB filed a proposed rule change to prohibit dealers from reporting "NRO" unless they also report price and yield information.

In response to a G-17 interpretive notice that takes effect August 2, a SIFMA task force will release a series of documents underwriters can reference as they prepare disclosures to issuers.

Government attorneys released snippets of taped conversations Monday in which UBS bankers and others use phrases like "baking in Chambers" and "the market," language prosecutors say helped them conspire to set bid prices and determine which firms would win contracts.

As the SEC toys with the possibility of imposing further regulations on money market funds, those close to the $2.6 trillion industry say the revisions are problematic, highly unnecessary, and could seriously undermine the successful operation and existence of the 40-year-old industry.

New Rule G-43 requires that broker's brokers make reasonable efforts to obtain fair and reasonable prices when conducting secondary-market "bid-wanted" auctions.

Mary Schapiro, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, laid out a case for additional money market reforms before the Senate Banking Committee Thursday.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board unveiled three new paid information packages Wednesday, giving market participants access to historic primary market disclosures, historic continuing disclosures and historic data for variable-rate securities.

Additional regulation of money-market mutual funds could increase short-term borrowing costs for state and local governments, leading municipalities to raise taxes or cut spending on infrastructure and other critical projects, according to a paper released Monday by a Georgetown University professor.