Law and regulation

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.

Rep. Steve Stivers, R.-Ohio, introduced a bill Friday that would define municipal advisors as those engaged with a municipal issuer to provide financial advice for compensation, with exceptions from the definition and its fiduciary duty for members of governmental boards, underwriters, bankers, swap dealers and those that provide related advice.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council lacks legal authority to recommend additional money market fund regulations, which have been opposed by a variety of municipal market participants, say industry and business advocacy associations in recently filed comment letters.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed proposed rule changes with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would require dealers to disclosure more information about contributions to issuers' bond ballot campaigns and resulting underwriting agreements.

Appointed members of state and local governmental boards will likely be exempted from the Securities and Exchange Commission's final definition of municipal advisor, which is expected to be released early this year, the SEC chairman said Thursday.

Market participants say munis are key to reaching the infrastructure goals laid out in President Obama's State of the Union Address, but caution that cuts to munis' tax benefits could make it difficult to fund the large-scale projects Obama described.

President Obama is not targeting municipal bonds in his proposal to cap the value of tax exclusions and deductions at 28%, Jack Lew, his nominee for Treasury Secretary told lawmakers Wednesday.

Lawyers for three former bankers convicted of rigging bids for municipal bond reinvestment contracts have pinned their appeals partly on circumstances surrounding the testimony of cooperating witness Adrian Scott-Jones, who abruptly left the courthouse during a day of testimony, and never returned.

The MSRB's Jay Goldstone reminded that comments on its review of its rules and interpretive guidance rule changes are due Feb. 19, asking commenters to offer specific suggestions and critiques.

Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, will introduce legislation in the coming days similar to a municipal advisor bill that passed the House last September.

Municipal market groups have mixed views about a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposal to require underwriters to file preliminary official statements on the EMMA system.