Law and regulation

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.

Incoming NABL board president Scott Lilienthal discusses sequestration, the fiscal cliff, the SEC report and other issues the group expects to face in the next 12 months.

The District of Columbia's Chief Financial Officer will hand over nearly three years of internal audits and add a disclosure to the district's most recent debt issuance after a request from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has proposed rule changes designed to both streamline underwriters' submission of new-issue bond information and reduce reporting errors.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Schapiro criticized the dominant pay model for ratings agencies on Tuesday.

An international proposal that would stipulate the amount of capital banks must hold against assets could discourage banks from buying municipal bonds, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

David Lerner Associates Inc. has agreed to pay some $4.3 million in fines and restitution for charging excessive markups on transactions of municipal bonds and collateralized-mortgage obligations between 2005 and 2012.

Marcy Edwards, senior financial policy advisor to the District of Columbia's chief financial officer, has been named a public board member of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, the MSRB announced Monday.

The SEC could tighten oversight of muni underwriters or adopt a "three strike system" for issuers if lawmakers fail to grant the SEC authority to set disclosure standards for issuers, a top regulator said Friday.

Jeanine Rodgers Caruso, president of Fiscal Advisors & Marketing Inc., is the new board president of the National Association of Independent Public Finance Advisors

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered seven firms to pay more than $260,000 in fines and restitution to customers for violations of trade reporting and other municipal securities rules.