Law and regulation

State and local government muni bond issuers whose pension obligations could either affect their ability to pay debt service or hurt their financial condition should consider disclosing more pension information in their official statements, the Government Finance Officers Association said in a new best practice document.

Municipal market participants are split over whether a proposal to tighten oversight of retail-order periods should specifically define types of orders that qualify as "retail."

Stratford Shields, managing director in Chicago at Morgan Stanley, has been elected chair of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's Municipal Securities Division for a two year term, SIFMA announced Friday in a media release.

The Securities and Exchange Commission would impinge on the sovereignty of state and local governments if granted authority requested in its July 31 report on the municipal market, the Government Finance Officers Association is warning.

Lawyers for three former bankers convicted in May of rigging bids for municipal bond contracts have filed appeal notices with an appellate court. The appeals were filed late last week with the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan by attorneys for Dominick Carollo, Steven E. Goldberg, and Peter Grimm, former employees at General Electric Co. affiliates.

The MSRB plans to study the idea of restricting, or possibly banning, contributions to bond-ballot campaigns by muni bond dealers.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary L. Schapiro today issued a statement saying she is pleased that the nation’s securities markets were able to open Wednesday despite the devastation left by Hurricane Sandy.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans to propose regulations that would require dealers to disclose more information about contributions to bond-ballot campaigns.

Eighteen muni market groups are urging the Obama administration to exempt Build America Bonds and other direct-pay bonds from sequestration.

Market participants whose electronic systems have been affected by Hurricane Sandy may want to notify the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

The MSRB cancelled a board meeting-related press call Monday due to deteriorating weather conditions caused by Hurricane Sandy.

Comments made by banking analyst Meredith Whitney in 2010 about looming municipal defaults caused more damage to the market than market participants charged with fraud in recent years, former muni regulator Paul S. Maco, said Friday.

Vicky Tsilas, assistant branch chief for the Internal Revenue Service's Office of Associate Chief Counsel, has been named associate tax legislative counsel in the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Policy.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is not pursuing the idea of imposing a three-strikes-and-you're-out system for issuers with disclosure failures, like the one floated last week by an SEC commissioner, John Cross, the director of the SEC's Office of Municipal Securities said here on Thursday.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers elected new officers and announced three new board members here on Wednesday. Scott R. Lilienthal, a partner at Hogan Lovells LLP in Washington, D.C., who had been president-elect, became president, replacing Kristin Franceschi, a partner at DLA Piper LLP in Baltimore.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers has announced winners of three awards recognizing notable service to the association and the public finance sector to Howard Zucker, Dave Caprera, and Hobby Presley.

Underwriters must conduct thorough due-diligence, checking issuers' official statements and continuing disclosure agreements for completeness and accuracy, prior to underwriting their bonds, a Securities and Exchange Commission official warned lawyers here.

Securities and Exchange Commission officials downplayed the potential for the so-called budget "sequestration" Thursday, but said dealers selling Build America Bonds should inform investors of any potentially risky call provisions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will be hiring more staff for its office of municipal securities in the coming years, the new director, John Cross, told bond lawyers meeting here.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich has asked the Treasury Department to investigate whether it was appropriate to use Build America Bonds to help finance the construction of a large coal-fired plant known as Prairie State Energy Campus, which has experienced cost overruns and operational problems that are hurting municipalities, electric cooperatives and 2.5 million ratepayers across eight states.