Law and regulation

The SEC could address muni market sectors with the most defaults if Congress gives it authority to enhance municipal issuers' disclosure practices, SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter said in a recent interview.

Some broker-dealer firms appear to have violated the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's Rule G-37 by engaging in negotiated muni business with issuers within two years after their municipal finance professionals made significant contributions to officials of those issuers, the SEC said Friday.

Moody's Investors Service has expanded its review for potentially downgrading Miami to include pension obligations and health care costs in addition to pending SEC charges.

The Internal Revenue Service has stepped up its efforts to investigate possible misconduct in the municipal bond sector, more than doubling the number of examinations it conducts per year.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro may have lost the first round in her push to reform the $2.6 trillion money market mutual fund industry, but the fight has only just begun.

Pre-trade reporting of muni bond prices by "alternative trading systems" could improve liquidity in the muni market. Or, such reporting could make liquidity worse. Market participants aren't sure which.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed proposed rule changes with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would require the exact par value of trades up to $5 million to be reported over EMMA on a near-real time basis.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will not pursue regulations aimed reducing the susceptibility of money market mutual funds to market runs, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro said in a statement Wednesday night.

The number of continuing disclosures muni bond issuers filed with the MSRB continues to increase, with issuers submitting 139,043 documents in the 12-months ending June 2012, according to a report released Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — This isn't the first time the Securities and Exchange Commission's has had conduit bonds in their cross hairs.

The SEC's request to impose corporate-style registration and disclosure requirements on certain conduit borrowers may not affect those that are responsible for most defaults, data shows.

Providers of municipal market data met with Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board staff Thursday to discuss concerns that municipal market participants do not adequately understand muni market indices.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposed rule changes Wednesday that would require dealers to disclose more details about their contributions to bond ballot campaigns.

Municipal market participants have mixed opinions about the benefits and burdens of a proposal to restrict the ability of underwriters to consent to bond-document changes.

Attorneys for Miami have proposed a settlement to head off federal civil charges proposed by Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed a similar case against the city in the 1990s.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board released a proposal Thursday aimed at increasing protection for retail investors who trade municipal bonds online.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts released updated disclosure recommendations for issuers of variable-rate demand obligations and other short-term securities on Wednesday.

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee has asked financial industry participants and members of the public for suggestions about legislative alternatives to the so-called Volcker Rule.

The MSRB has drafted a new rule G-45 that would require underwriters or other primary distributors of Section 529 college savings plans to provide detailed information about these plans to the board’s EMMA system on a quarterly basis. But the board would not disseminate the data fight now.

Regulatory efforts to improve municipal bond pricing transparency have resulted in lower prices paid by retail buyers of muni bonds, according to preliminary results of a study on muni pricing and trading being conducted by Erik Sirri, former director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's trading and markets division.