Law and regulation

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is holding a meeting on March 22 for market participants to discuss changes affecting public pension obligations and other post-retirement benefits, including plan redesigns, differing accounting and valuation methods and legal issues.

The Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing March 12 to consider President Obama's nomination of Mary Jo White as the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the committee announced Tuesday.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board wants feedback from the public on the top regulatory and other priorities that it should address in its next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

A municipal advisor bill working through Congress threatens to erode key protections afforded to taxpayers and municipalities by the Dodd-Frank Act, said representatives from a public advocacy group and organizations representing independent advisors on Monday.

Amid finger-pointing and political grandstanding, President Obama and congressional leaders failed to come to an agreement to avoid $85 billion in sweeping automatic budget cuts, which kicks in on Friday.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board wants to hire a deputy general counsel and an assistant general counsel to work in its market regulation division.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed a proposed rule change with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would tighten regulation of dealers' muni-related telemarketing practices and require them to respect customers' "do not call" requests indefinitely, rather than for just five years.

Municipal market trading activity in 2012 mirrored trends seen in 2011, with par value remaining largely unchanged and the number of transactions slipping slightly to less than 10 million, according to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's 2012 Fact Book, released today.

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to hold a public roundtable on Tuesday, April 16 to discuss ways to improve the transparency and efficiency of the municipal and corporate fixed income markets.

Municipal market participants face the prospect of more enforcement action this year while issuers will be pressured to step up disclosure efforts, industry experts said Tuesday, the final day of the National Municipal Bond Summit.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will offer a live webcast of its market outreach event with the Municipal Advisory Council of Texas on March 7 in Dallas. This is the first time the board has webcasted an outreach event.

Decisions about project plans, agendas and priorities at the Governmental Accounting Standards Board will now be made by a majority vote of the organization's board, not solely by the board chair.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a public roundtable on Tuesday, May 14, to discuss the SEC's December staff Report to Congress on Assigned Credit Ratings, which reviews possible conflicts of interest that arise under the so-called "issuer pay model" and recommends regulatory and statutory changes.

The Government Finance Officers Association's executive board has approved five new best-practice documents, including a paper recommending that issuers develop a policy to ensuring they adequately fund pension plans.

The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday voted 19 to 5 to recommend that the full Senate confirm Jacob Lew as the next Treasury Secretary.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has moved its library of electronic disclosures of dealers' political contributions to the EMMA system, the board announced Monday.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board should update its rule book to include training materials written for enforcement agents and references to related enforcement actions, and should clarify rules on fair dealing and financial advisors, according to the National Association of Bond Lawyers.

Citing the need to review millions of pieces of evidence, former Bank of America executive Phillip Dennis Murphy, who was indicted in July 2012 for scheming to rig bids for investment contracts, has waived his right to a speedy trial and requested a trial date of Feb. 3, 2014.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board should harmonize its rules with those of other regulatory agencies, conduct thorough analysis of the costs imposed by its rules and clarify language in the rules to make them less ambiguous for market participants and compliance examiners, said comment letters filed with the board in recent days.

Seven firms and two individuals have agreed to pay a total of $164,500 in fines and nearly $17,000 in restitution for violating trade, price and other rules of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.