Law and regulation

Two senators have introduced a bipartisan bill that would give the Securities and Exchange Commission the ability to levy higher civil monetary penalties against firms and individuals for securities law violations.

The House Judiciary Committee is unlikely to pass legislation that would give Puerto Rican public municipalities and utilities the ability to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 9, committee chair Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a Wednesday statement.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is giving 529 college savings plan underwriters a 60-day extension on the first date data submissions are due under a recently adopted rule.

The Supreme Court has declined to hear the case of ex-Miami, Fla. budget director Michael Boudreaux, sending the former official and the city back to court to fight a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit in a move some lawyers fear could hurt municipal officials' abilities to do their jobs.

As the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board continues to gather information on bond ballot contributions and weigh its regulations on the topic, concerns about possible pay-to-play issues from the contributions are already finding their way into the public eye.

The Securities and Exchange Commission tried to refute criticisms of its controversial disclosure violations self-reporting program while providing some hints about its attitudes toward what violations are important to investors, lawyers said Monday.

The Government Finance Officers Association is calling for changes in the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's core conduct rule for municipal advisors to reduce the costs and burdens for issuers.

The House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2016 bill Wednesday that would keep Securities and Exchange Commission funding consistent at the 2015 enacted level of $1.5 billion, about $222 million short of President Obama’s FY2016 request.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has added a new feature to its EMMA website that allows users to locate disclosure information that might otherwise be difficult to find in cases where new CUSIP numbers are assigned to portions of bonds after issuance.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined Wells Fargo Securities $12,500 for trade reporting violations and barred an individual from the securities industry for allowing the fraudulent transfer of $160,000 from a customer to an unrelated third party.

Municipal securities dealers are worried that their participation in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative could cause them problems with multiple regulators, and have asked the SEC for reassurance that their businesses will not be impeded because they chose to report under the MCDC.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is proposing to ease the standard of independence for one of its public board member positions.

A federal appeals court denied the appeals of a trio of convicted bid-riggers Thursday in a ruling that could have lasting effects for future fraudsters.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities hired two new attorney fellows recently, the chief of that office confirmed this week.

Municipal issuers spent $2,000 to $18,000 to do continuing disclosure reviews under the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative and the vast majority of them felt they were forced to do them, the Government Finance Officers Association said during a spirited panel discussion here Tuesday.

A number of market participants want a sophisticated issuer exemption to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s municipal advisor registration rule, but a leading official in the SEC’s Office of Municipal Securities said Monday that the rule is too new for that.

Dealer groups and banks remain highly concerned that the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed core municipal advisor rule could limit the services they offer, while non-dealer advisors told the Securities and Exchange Commission that the proposal needs more clarification in several ways.

The Government Finance Officers Association is trying to galvanize public officials to pressure federal banking regulators into more permissive rules classifying municipal securities as high-quality liquid assets under the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) rule adopted last year.

Municipal issuers need to be prepared to fight against Securities and Exchange Commission efforts to directly regulate them, members of the Government Finance Officers Associations' Committee on Governmental Debt Management said Saturday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission should not approve the outline for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's Municipal Advisory Representative Qualification Examination because it takes an inappropriate "one-size-fits-all" approach, the Investment Company Institute told the commission in a comment letter.