Law and regulation

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Thursday requested approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to expand the post-trade data displayed on EMMA.

Lawmakers are concerned about the Securities and Exchange Commission's extensive use of administrative proceedings to enforce securities laws in the wake of the Dodd-Frank Act, a trend that has not extended to municipal cases.

An expected months-long suspension of sales of state and local government series securities is likely to be most challenging for small issues with short defeasance escrows, market participants said.

Former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux wants the U.S. Supreme Court to grant him immunity from a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that has attracted a lot of attention from issuer officials and attorneys.

Muni professionals who take a Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board-owned qualifications exam on or after April 1 will pay an increased fee of $150, the MSRB announced this week.

The muni market may learn more about how issuers fared under the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative after they respond next month to a survey from the Government Finance Officers Association.

The total amount of outstanding municipal securities and loans in the market rose 0.6% to $3.65 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year, as U.S. bank muni holdings increased 2.5% and mutual fund muni holdings rose to a record high $658 billion.

Lawyers, issuer officials, and others consulted about the fund agreed that the three firms did nothing against the rules when they gave the money to the fund, which is governed by a board independent of the city leadership and which does nothing to politically support Garcetti or any other political interest.

Securities and Exchange Commission member Daniel Gallagher is calling for Congress to mandate that municipal issuers use Government Accounting Standards Board benchmarks, possibly as a condition for the bonds to be tax-exempt.

Many bond lawyers feel that with all municipal rating agencies soon to be beaming live ratings to EMMA, the Securities and Exchange Commission should amend its rules so that issuers no longer have to worry about filing notices of upgrades and downgrades.

The Treasury Department announced on Friday that it will indefinitely suspend sales of state and local government securities beginning at noon on March 13 because of the federal debt limit.

Bond Dealers of America has tapped Steve Genyk, a managing director and the head of fixed income capital markets at Janney Montgomery Scott, as the new chairman of its board for fiscal 2015, which started March 1.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division is contacting dealers who reported their own possible violations of securities laws under a voluntary enforcement program initiated last year, giving them two weeks to decide if they still want to take advantage of the lenient settlement terms.

Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has promoted its deputy general counsel Lawrence Sandor to the newly created position of chief compliance officer.

Municipal issuers’ disclosures of financial and operating data have increased dramatically, while disclosures of bank loans have been disappointing, Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board executive director Lynnette Kelly said at a conference.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts has released a paper on best practices in disclosure for bank loans, an opaque segment of the municipal debt market that is getting increased attention from regulators.

Hospital credits could be hurt if the Supreme Court strikes down federal health insurance subsidies established by the Affordable Care Act, Moody's Investors Service said Tuesday.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is likely to propose requiring alternative trading systems to report quotation information on municipal securities to it in the future, industry officials said after listening to speakers on a federal regulatory update panel at a conference here on Monday afternoon.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's best execution rule may create liquidity problems for certain areas of the market and will pose compliance challenges for everyone, industry officials said Monday.

Moody's Investors Service ratings will be available on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's EMMA website later this year, ending the rating agency's long holdout from the site.