Law and regulation

MSRB: Dealers to Report Contractual Dollar Price of Interdealer Trades By March 29

The incoming and outgoing chairmen of the House Financial Services Committee — Reps. Jeb Hensarling and Spencer Bachus, respectively — are urging banking regulators to delay implementation of the Volcker Rule until 2015.

The MSRB said today it will change how it calculates bid-to-cover ratios for auction rate securities, one day after the chief executive officer of a Manhattan-based financial advisory firm urged reforms.

The MSRB has revised a draft rule that would require underwriters of 529 college savings plans to file certain plan-related data once or twice a year, instead of quarterly.

President Obama has designated Elisse B. Walter, a leading proponent of increased regulatory oversight of the municipal bond industry, as the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, effective Dec. 14.

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Schapiro has announced she will leave her post Dec. 14.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has proposed including two more exceptions in draft rules that would limit underwriters' ability to consent to changes in muni bond authorizing documents.

Trading in the $3.7 trillion municipal securities market continued to decrease in the third quarter of 2012, according to market statistics released Nov. 20 by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

In response to new GASB standards, the Government Finance Officers Association wants to give state and local governments guidelines on how to craft sound pension funding policies.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined three Chicago-based firms a total of $40,000 for violations of muni trade reporting and other rules.

The Securities and Exchange Commission staff released a report Thursday showing some nationally-recognized rating agencies failed to disclose or manage conflicts of interest and changed rating methodologies for securities without disclose the changes until months later.

The Securities and Exchange Commission received 64 whistleblower tips about possible securities law violations in connection with municipal securities and pensions during fiscal 2012, which ended Sept. 30.

Municipal Market Advisors and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association say that a federal decision delaying implementation of Basel III standards for banks is a positive for U.S. municipal bonds.

Federal banking regulators on Wednesday were unable to say when they might finalize rules under the international Basel III accord that would require banks to increase the capital backing their assets and change the way they determine the riskiness of their investments and loans.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed 17 municipal securities-related enforcement actions during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, more than twice the number filed in fiscal 2011, the commission announced yesterday.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council has proposed regulatory reforms for money market mutual funds similar to those advocated by Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary Schapiro.

Early next week the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will launch MyEMMA, a free online service that will allow users of the MSRB's EMMA system to customize municipal securities searches and email alerts.

Hurricane Sandy may demonstrate to lawmakers the importance of tax-exempt financing and promote opposition to proposals that threaten munis’ tax exemption.

The MSRB, to boost trade transparency, announced that the par amount of trades of less than $5 million will now be posted on the EMMA system in real time.

Muni groups have warned that a plan by the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation to change fees collected to register new municipal securities would raise issuers' costs and disproportionately affect small state and local governments.