Law and regulation

Sixteen municipal market groups are urging House members to co-sponsor a bill that would treat all investment grade and actively traded municipal securities as high-quality liquid assets under a bank liquidity rule.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s proposal to collect additional post-trade data for EMMA, the MSRB announced late Tuesday.

Municipal issuers and dealers hope that the Federal Reserve's proposal to include uninsured investment-grade general obligation bonds as high-quality liquid assets under the Fed's liquidity coverage ratio requirement rule spurs other banking regulators to do the same.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has proposed a rule that would amend the Fed’s liquidity coverage ratio requirement (LCR) to include some uninsured investment-grade general obligation municipal securities as high-quality liquid assets (HQLA), a move market participant have said matters little unless other regulators follow suit.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged an Atlanta-based investment advisory firm and two executives with fraud for allegedly selling investments to pension funds for the city's police and firefighters, transit workers, and other employees that were illegal under state law.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that Jessica Kane will be the new director of the SEC’s Office of Municipal Securities and that Rebecca Olsen will be deputy director.

Municipal market trading volume fell 13% from the first quarter of last year, according to statistics released by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Tuesday.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined a dealer firm and fined and suspended an individual for violations of Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rules, FINRA revealed in its monthly disciplinary report for May.

Federal aid for Puerto Rico and its cash-strapped issuing authorities is not going to happen, former governor Luis Fortuño told municipal analysts Thursday.

Any well-publicized enforcement action over whether bank loans should be treated as securities would certainly provide some guidance on this issue, Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board executive director Lynnette Kelly told muni analysts meeting here.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts presented awards to six muni market professionals during a luncheon at its annual conference in Las Vegas Wednesday.

“Don’t fear the Fed” and looming interest rate increases, a senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research told municipal analysts meeting here Wednesday

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s appellate tribunal has revised its sanction guidelines, proposing significant increases in the highest level of fines for disciplinary actions and tougher sanctions for cases involving fraud and recommendations of unsuitable investments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has frequently pursued recent municipal market enforcement actions in federal court rather than in front of its own administrative law judges, where critics have charged that the SEC enjoys a distinct home field advantage.

The annual average length of time between the end of the fiscal year and the date on which audited financial statements were submitted to EMMA was 448 days in 2014, sharply above the average of 342 days in 2013, a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board report found.

Default rates are far higher for corporates than for munis with the same ratings, a discrepancy regulators are hoping to address with a rule that takes effect June 15.

A bipartisan coalition of House members has introduced legislation that would require federal banking regulators to treat certain municipal securities held by large banks and other financial institutions as high-quality liquid assets

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority faced criticism from House Republicans Friday wondered if the broker-dealer self-regulator is too heavy-handed with small firms.

Rep. Rep. Bill Pascrell, who keeps a Lucite encased drinking water pipe in his office as a reminder of the "very serious and urgent" need, has continued to press for his Sustainable Water Infrastructure Investment Act.

U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli has until May 20 to respond to a request from Miami, Fla.'s former budget director that the Supreme Court hear his argument that he should be shielded from a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit.