Law and regulation

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has released proposed rule changes that would provide guidance on how municipal securities dealers should price bonds and calculate their compensation.

Three groups are threatening to challenge the constitutionality of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's revised pay-to-play rule for municipal advisors.

Comprehensive or targeted reform of the federal tax code could significantly impact the revenues of most states, The Pew Charitable Trusts found in a report released Wednesday.

Oppenheimer & Co., WFG Investments, and E*TRADE were three of seven firms that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined a total of $412,500 for trading municipal securities below the minimum denomination.

Lisa Washburn, a managing director with Municipal Market Analytics, is the new chair of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.

Muni market groups are considering changes to issuer audit processes, improvements to EMMA, and additional guidance from regulators as part of a collaborative effort to shore up continuing disclosure and prevent additional rules or enforcement actions from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Government Finance Officers Association has issued an alert urging municipal issuers to be prepared for settlement offers from the Securities Exchange Commission under its program for voluntary self-reporting of violations in connection with continuing disclosure obligations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has plans to increase its examination and enforcement staff as President Obama announced in his budget on Tuesday that he wants to double the SEC’s budget by fiscal year 2021, starting with a $200 million increase to $1.78 billion in 2017.

Patrick McCoy, the finance director New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was elected president of the Government Finance Officers Association.

Recent opinions issued by the California attorney general’s office may have some municipal advisors and broker-dealers treading carefully to avoid breaking Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rules.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s release of a final round of 14 underwriter settlements under its self-reporting initiative may indicate issuer settlement s are next.

Municipal market participants on a panel here Tuesday said continuing disclosure is improving and credited the SEC's voluntary enforcement initiative with giving it a boost. They also had positive things to say about federal oversight and rules for non-dealer municipal advisors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged 14 municipal underwriting firms for violations in municipal bond offerings under its voluntary Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative.

Registration has begun for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) 2016 Regional Compliance Outreach Programs for Broker-Dealers that will take place in New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco.

The House late Monday passed a bill that would treat investment grade and readily marketable municipal securities as high quality liquid assets under a liquidity rule banking regulators adopted in 2014. The Senate is expected to begin considering a companion bill in the near future.

California city attorneys who also provide bond counsel services may not be paid based on a percentage of a city's bond issuances, according to a formal opinion from the office of California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will seek public comment on both how dealers should calculate the prevailing market price under its proposal requiring dealer disclosure of markups to retail customers and how it could get more issuers to disclose bank loans.

The Government Finance Officers Association is recommending state and local governments refrain from issuing bonds to finance the unfunded liabilities of health care and other non-pension post-employment benefit programs.

School and community college districts violate California law if they purposely incentivize municipal finance professionals to advocate for passage of a bond measure, said a formal opinion from Attorney General Kamala Harris.

The House is scheduled to hold a voice vote on Monday on a bill that would treat investment grade and actively traded municipal securities as high quality liquid assets under a rule banking regulators adopted in 2014.