Law and regulation

Barack Obama has nominated two longtime Senate aides to become the next new commissioners at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the White House announced Thursday.

A former investment banker at Goldman, Sachs, & Co. has agreed to pay a $100,000 fine and be barred from the securities industry for five years for his involvement in a pay to play scheme involving a Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will continue to consider possible enforcement actions over pension and other disclosure failures such as those that occurred in Illinois and Harrisburg, Pa., the SEC's muni office chief said Wednesday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged South Miami, Fla. with defrauding investors by negligently making misstatements and failing to disclose actions it took that jeopardized the tax-exempt status of $12 million of bonds.

A trio of convicted bid riggers deserve prison terms of more than 16 years as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines when they face a judge in July, according to the government's sentencing recommendations.

Securities and Exchange Commissioner Elisse Walter said Monday that despite great progress made in recent years in the regulation of fixed-income securities markets, secondary market disclosure must improve.

Former three-term Republican U.S. Senator Judd Gregg, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's new chief executive officer, said Monday that he wants to improve the image of the industry and make sure Dodd-Frank rules are focused and not overly burdensome.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities has added two members to its staff, SEC muni chief John Cross announced Monday.

The House approved on Friday legislation requiring the Securities and Exchange Commission to perform cost-benefit analysis of its regulations, which Republicans characterized as common sense and Democrats decried as an attempt to weaken federal oversight.

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Jo White told lawmakers Thursday that unfinished Dodd-Frank Regulations are a top priority, and that the SEC needs tough enforcement penalties to maintain order over an increasingly complex market landscape.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined five firms nearly $200,000 for violations of municipal securities rules, and ordered that they pay many thousands more in customer restitution.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts presented its 29th annual industry awards during its annual conference dinner in San Diego earlier this month.

The House is likely to vote Friday on legislation that would require the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of any new regulations, a move Democrats see as a bid to weaken financial reform.

Reps. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., and Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, have sent a letter to new Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Jo White urging her to make sure that the SEC's final definition of municipal advisor reflects their bill, which is pending before the House Financial Services Committee.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts presented Excellence in Disclosure awards to four issuers at a dinner at its annual conference in San Diego May 2.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's revised suitability rule should include dealer obligations to sophisticated municipal market professionals and suitability requirements for 529 college savings plans, according to comments received by the MSRB Monday.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's EMMA website will now display both the initial offering dollar price and yield for a bond, when available, the MSRB announced today.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday it has charged the City of Harrisburg, Pa., with securities fraud for making misleading public statements when its financial condition was deteriorating.

The largest trend facing the municipal world right now is efforts on multiple fronts to become more transparent, according to speakers at a Wednesday panel at the National Federation of Municipal Analyst's annual conference.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is requesting comments on a proposal to consolidate current fair dealing rule guidance into two stand-alone rules defining sophisticated municipal market professionals and laying out dealer obligations to them.