Law and regulation

In the regulatory and legislative arenas next year, dealers will have to grapple with how to set up compliance programs for markup disclosure rules while municipal advisors try to adjust to the many rules adopted in 2016 and issuers work to improve disclosure to stave off legislation.

Ross Sinclaire & Associates has agreed to pay $250,000 and to disgorge ill-gotten gains to settle muni rules violations with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority after it improperly acted as a financial advisor and underwriter on the same muni issuances. The Cincinnati-based firm also failed to disclose material facts in offering documents and was late in filing underwriting disclosures with regulators, FINRA said.

We take a deeper look at material information that is reasonably accessible that should be disclosed at or before the time of trade.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s rule changes to prevent municipal advisors from engaging in pay-to-play practices are constitutional and comply with federal statutes, contrary to the claims of three Republican groups, the MSRB told a federal appeals court on Monday

Revere Securities was fined $10,000 for trade reporting failures while two individuals were fined a total of $22,500 and suspended for improper trading of municipal securities and supervisory failures by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Brad Bennett, who oversaw many important municipal bond enforcement cases over nearly six years, plans to leave the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority as its enforcement chief early next year and return to private practice.

Market groups and firms are asking the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to rethink proposed rule changes related to complaints, saying they should be adapted to better fit the differences in the relationships that municipal advisors have with clients and dealers have customers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will not bring any more settlements under its Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative and will instead focus on those underwriters and issuers that did not voluntarily disclose violations under the MCDC.

Issuer officials who said Treasury's final issue price rules are a vast improvement over earlier proposals nevertheless raised concern that they might discourage competitive sales of bonds or create problems for issuers if underwriters run afoul of the rules.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s top cop Andrew Ceresney plans to leave the SEC by the end of the year after helping to bring several ground-breaking municipal bonds and other enforcement cases.

A bill introduced by Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., that would shift municipal disclosure responsibilities to issuers and borrowers from underwriters could drive some localities out of the market, issuer officials warned Moore’s chief of staff on Thursday.

The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service have finalized issue price rules that contain special allowances for competitive sales.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association will be focused on several municipal bond industry initiatives in including disclosure in 2017, the group said at its annual “State of the Industry” briefing in New York on Wednesday.

Former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux will face a much lighter penalty for securities fraud than the Securities and Exchange Commission sought, after a federal court judge found that the commission overreached in its requests to have Boudreaux enjoined and fined $450,000.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered UBS to pay two Puerto Rican residents $18.4 million in damages, interest, and other fees over the residents’ investments in closed-end mutual funds concentrated in Puerto Rico bonds.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association wants bank regulators to avoid adopting harsh international capital standards for trading that could have a chilling effect on the municipal market and hurt liquidity.

The MSRB issued interpretive guidance on how its rules apply to accounts that are fully managed by a registered investment advisor that is also a sophisticated municipal market professional.

The SEC, in a court filing on Tuesday, said former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux's arguments against penalties the SEC wants to impose on him for securities fraud show a lack of responsibility and respect for the jury verdict that found him guilty.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority found that Merrill Lynch failed to properly supervise customers’ investments in Puerto Rico bonds and closed-end funds.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has announced that its dealer markup rule will take effect on May 14, 2018.