Law and regulation

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association has released four model documents designed to help municipal advisors as they work to come into compliance with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s rule outlining the core duties for Mas.

The Government Finance Officers Association is the latest group to cry foul over the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department’s proposed political subdivision rules, and called on the IRS to withdraw the proposal.

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs has recommended that the full Senate approve President Obama’s two nominees for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The mayor of Harvey, Ill. has agreed to pay $10,000 and to never participate in a municipal bond offering again in order to settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he helped the city mislead bond investors by diverting proceeds from projects for which they were intended.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has filed a complaint against Phoenix-based Lawson Financial Corp. and the firm's president and chief executive officer, charging them with securities fraud in connection with the sale of millions of dollars of municipal revenue bonds to customers.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has tapped Susan Collet to become head of legislative affairs, overseeing its congressional and federal government activities.

Three state Republican parties are challenging the constitutionality of a revised Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rule designed to prevent municipal advisors as well as dealers from engaging in pay-to-play practices. The revised rule was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in February.

Municipal bond market participants may agree that bank loan disclosure falls short but there's little consensus about how to improve it amid heightened regulatory scrutiny.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, a subsidiary of Bank of America, was ordered to pay $422,708 in fines and restitution by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for charging customers excessive markups and markdowns on municipal securities.

Our legislation would preserve money market funds as a source of liquidity and capital for public the infrastructure needs of our citizens.

The Government Finance Officers Association is seeking a new senior associate to engage in legislative and regulatory advocacy as part of the group’s federal liaison center here.

Colorado state lawmakers have passed legislation designed to validate previous elections of special districts and protect them from legal challenges to their “qualified electors” who vote to create the districts and authorize issuances of tax-exempt bonds.

The Government Finance Officers Association posted an alert on Thursday encouraging its members to both voluntarily disclose the terms of their bank loans and pay attention to regulators’ increased scrutiny of the lack of such disclosures.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed revised amendments with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would require municipal securities transactions to be closed out within 20 days of settlement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging a father, his son, and five of their associates with defrauding investors in Native American tribal bonds to pay for, among other things, their luxury expenses and legal costs associated with prior fraud charges.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is using Peter Cannava, a banker involved in an ill-fated private placement for a startup video game company, as a scapegoat and has no basis for charging him with defrauding investors, his lawyers claimed this week.

Municipal industry experts on Thursday urged analysts to continue focusing on how the presence of statutory liens can change the treatment of debt in bankruptcy proceedings and ratings analyses.

The par amount and number of municipal securities trades rose in the first quarter of this year, compared to both the previous and same quarters last year, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board statistics posted Thursday. But the number of continuing disclosure documents received dropped to 46,623 in the first quarter of this year from 47,934 during the same period last year.

A regulatory official and market participants sparred over the merits of the Securities and Exchange Commission's voluntary continuing disclosure enforcement initiative during a panel here on Wednesday while acknowledging the need to improve municipal disclosure.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is opening an application window between May 3 and May 10 to allow more individuals associated with banks and broker-dealers to apply for a seat on next year’s board.