Law and regulation

Ed Fierro has joined Bracewell after leaving the SEC’s Office of Municipal Securities.

Market participants gathered at The Bond Buyer and Bond Dealers of America’s National Municipal Bond Summit expressed concerns with the broad nature of the SEC’s proposal to add two material events to Rule 15c2-12 that would also emphasize the need to make materiality determinations.

The SEC wants a Puerto Rico federal court to agree that Jose Ramirez, a former UBS Puerto Rico employee, engaged in a scheme to defraud investors in closed-end funds with large investments in Puerto Rico bonds.

Five firms have agreed to pay a total of nearly $920,000 to settle separate rule violations related to municipal securities.

Lawyers gathered at NABL’s Tax and Securities Law Institute on Friday said a carve out in the MSRB’s recent clarification on requiring CUSIPs for private placements would be beneficial to the market.

Lawyers at NABL’s TSLI conference on Thursday said that while the SEC’s proposed amendments to its list of material events are well-meaning, they would be burdensome for issuers dealing with the numerous new disclosure obligations.

The Senate Banking Committee’s scheduled hearing on Jay Clayton’s nomination is expected to include some questions from Democrats on Clayton’s ties to Wall Street and ability to protect investors.

A guilty plea from Aaron Troodler, the former executive director of the Ramapo Local Development Corp., for criminal securities fraud means he could face a maximum of 25 years in prison.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has released criteria that will generally require the top five firms submitting to certain of the self-regulator’s systems to participate in Securities and Exchange Commission-mandated business continuity and disaster recovery plan testing.

Marrien Neilson, the former BOK Financial employee the SEC said was responsible for concealing some of Christopher Brogdon's securities fraud, agreed to a first of a kind ban on her acting as an indenture trustee or dissemination agent for municipal bonds as well as a $55,000 payment to settle the charges.

Dealers are criticizing a proposed standalone minimum denomination rule from the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, saying it would hamper liquidity and hurt investors by limiting the liquidity of below-minimum denomination positions in municipal securities.

The SEC’s proposal to obtain more information disclosures on bank loans, placements and other financing alternatives to municipal bonds could affect leases, guarantees, derivatives and certain monetary obligations.

The MSRB has draft amendments to its Rule G-34 on CUSIP numbers to clarify requirements and clear up misunderstandings.

SEC Commissioners gave the green light on Wednesday for the staff to propose two new amendments to Rule 15c2-12 that would require issuers and borrowers to disclose certain information about bank loans and private placements, which are increasingly used alternatives to publicly offered muni bonds.

Mark Kim from DC Water will become Lynnette Kelly's No. 2 at MSRB, while Lakshmi Kommi of the City of San Diego will replace him on the MSRB's board of directors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will weigh two amendments to required material event notices under its Rule 15c2-12 during a meeting on March 1 that may include discussion of adding bank loans and private placements to the 14-item event list.

Six holders of municipal revenue bonds underwritten by Christopher Brogdon are trying to recover as much as $1 million in lost capital as well as other expenses from bond trustee BOK Financial Securities.

Morgan Stanley will pay a $115,000 fine and $55,284 in restitution after FINRA found the firm engaged in muni transactions where it charged prices that were not fair or reasonable.

Christopher Morrill, Roanoke, Va.’s city manager, will replace Jeff Esser in May as GFOA executive director as municipal issuers face "challenging times."

Julie Egan, the new chair of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, wants to increase NFMA’s visibility in the municipal market in 2017 and push regulators for more improvements to muni disclosure.