Law and regulation

The Government Finance Officers Association has hired Dustin T. McDonald, former senior public affairs advisor at law firm Holland & Knight LLP, to succeed Susan Gaffney as director of the group's federal liaison center.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Monday launched its search for seven new board of directors who will serve three-year terms starting Oct. 1. The board consists of 21 members who serve for three years on a staggered basis, so that seven roll off every year and are replaced.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts announced Friday four new officers on its board if directors, including new chair Jeffrey Burger, portfolio manager at Standish Mellon Asset Management Co. in Boston.

Market participants mostly support a revised proposal by the MSRB that would require primary distributors or underwriters of 529 savings plans to submit information to the MSRB, but urged the board to keep information confidential and to consider additional changes.

Market participants wonder if the Justice Department will indict more firms and individuals for bid-rigging of bond-related investment and derivatives contracts.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered five firms to pay $4.48 million for unfairly using bond proceeds to pay reimburse themselves for membership fees they paid to the California Public Securities Association, a lobbying group.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday issued an Investor Bulletin designed to help buyers of municipal bonds better understand bonds' credit risks.

Political division in the leadership of the Securities and Exchange Commission could slow the agency's ability to advance a host of municipal market-related measures in 2013, say some market participants.

The SEC approved rule changes that would allow underwriters to fulfill some new-issue reporting requirements by filing information with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.'s New Issue Information Dissemination Service, or NIIDS.

U.S. attorneys asked a federal judge Monday to order former executives of a General Electric Co. affiliate to pay $6.9 million in restitution to municipal bond issuers for rigging bids on municipal bond reinvestment contracts.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined three firms $76,500 for violating rules of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is requesting feedback on, among other things, whether its rules impose undue burdens on market participants, and how those burdens could be alleviated.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo will pay municipal bond issuers a total of nearly $78 million to settle a civil class-action lawsuit claiming the banks manipulated bidding for guaranteed investment contracts.

Bond Dealers of America reminded lawmakers Thursday that the so-called Volcker Rule could restrict liquidity in the muni bond market and raise issuers' costs.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking has proposed requiring underwriters to file issuers' preliminary official statements on the EMMA system in an effort to boost pre-trade transparency in the new-issue muni market.

The outgoing Massachusetts Democrat, whose personal investments included roughly $900,000 of municipal bonds last year, says there's little reason for regulators to tighten oversight of general-obligation bonds.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has changed how it calculates "bid to cover" ratios for auction-rate securities to make the data more indicative of investor demand.

In response to a spate of municipal bankruptcies and ongoing fiscal challenges at the local level, the California Treasurer's office has embarked on a project aimed at predicting cities' likelihood of defaulting on bonds.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will request public comments on its roughly 300-page rule book in December, part of a multi-year review to ensure its rules are effective, efficient and reflect changing market conditions.

A diverse group of associations with ties to the municipal bond market expect to publish a paper early next year that will give state and local governments guidance on how and when to disclose loans they receive direct from banks.