Law and regulation

Two Citigroup companies agreed to pay $180 million on Monday to settle charges they defrauded investors by misrepresenting that investments in two now-defunct hedge funds were safe, low-risk and suitable for traditional bond investors.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has proposed several changes to clarify its proposed Rule G-42 on core duties of municipal advisors but declined to ease a controversial provision that would bar an MA giving advice from acting as a principal in the same transaction.

Susan Gaffney has been hired as executive director of the National Association of Municipal Advisors.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has censored and fined UBS Financial Services $750,000 for falsely representing to its customers that the interest on their municipal bond payments was tax-exempt when it was taxable.

Securities and Exchange Commission members are calling for the adoption of rules requiring broker-dealers to disclose markups and markdowns on municipal securities, warning that if self-regulators do not act, the SEC will propose the rules itself.

Lobbying efforts more than doubled in the second quarter of this year over pending legislation that would give Puerto Rico utilities and authorities access to Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced Monday it will increase its initial and annual fees while lowering its underwriting fee to better distribute costs among regulated entities based on level of involvement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked for an extension to decide whether to approve the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed Rule G-42 on the core duties of municipal advisors.

The Senate Appropriations Committee's fiscal 2016 financial services bill would significantly underfund the Securities and Exchange Commission and undermine the Internal Revenue Service's ability to carry out basic functions, Office of Management and Budget director Shaun Donovan warned committee leaders in a letter this week.

Trading activity in the municipal market for the second quarter of this year was 14% higher than the previous quarter as well as the second quarter last year, with several Puerto Rico bonds among the most traded, according to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board issued a media advisory on Tuesday warning of possible problems its anti-pay-to-play rule could cause for governors who are running for president and Wall Street firms that may contribute to them.

Nat Singer, senior managing director at Swap Financial Group, will become the new chair of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Oct. 1.

Faced with requests from dealers to withdraw its proposed principal trade price disclosure rule, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board now plans to modify that proposal as well as develop an alternative that would require dealers to disclose markups and markdowns on certain principal trades.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board late Friday filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission revised content outlines to its qualification exams for municipal fund securities limited principals, municipal securities representatives, and municipal securities principals that will bring the tests in line with recent MSRB rule changes.

Bankruptcies in Detroit, Jefferson County, Ala., and three California cities helped spawn a new breed of activist judges, who may use Chapter 9 cases as the platform not just for reorganizing municipal debt, but also for helping set the stage for turning distressed cities around.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers has announced nominees for officers and directors of its board as well as the recipients of its awards.

"Detroit's a much better credit than it was two years ago," its former emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, told a municipal bond market group.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans later this year to propose changes to Rules G-37, on political contributions, and G-20, on gifts and gratuities, to extend these dealer rules to municipal advisors, the executive director said on Tuesday.

Proposed rule changes by the Federal Reserve are so restrictive that they would either substantially reduce or exclude municipal securities from being considered high-quality liquid assets in liquidity coverage ratios banks have to meet and, as a result, would hurt the municipal market, dealer groups and issuers are warning.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bill Thursday that would provide $1.5 billion of funding for the Securities and Exchange Commission in fiscal year 2016, the same amount as the fiscal 2015 enacted level and $222 million less than the commission requested earlier this year.