Law and regulation

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Allen Park, Mich., and two former city leaders with fraud in connection with a municipal bond offering to support a movie studio project within the city.

Having consolidated control of both the House and Senate for the first time in eight years, Republicans on Wednesday vowed to end the gridlock and begin passing legislation early next year. President Obama urged Congress to move forward with corporate tax reform to help pay for infrastructure improvements – an issue that has some bipartisan support.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts has released the first part of a new set of best practices for general obligation bond disclosure that includes separate criteria for state and local securities.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the next likely chairman of the Senate Banking Committee following the Republican takeover of the chamber, is expected to push for greater oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission and to oppose Federal Reserve policy.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement action against 13 dealer firms Monday represents a broad commission effort to correct behavior that was probably due to mistakes by individual traders dealing with an unusual bond issuance, attorneys and market participants said Tuesday.

Former Miami, Fla. budget director Michael Boudreaux is seeking a rehearing before a full federal court of appeals after a three-judge panel earlier this year denied his claim of immunity from a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today sanctioned 13 firms for improperly selling Puerto Rico bonds in denominations below a $100,000 minimum denomination set in a $3.5 billion offering earlier this year.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will seek Securities and Exchange Commission approval of its proposal to extend its pay-to-play rule to include municipal advisors as well as changes to post-trade disclosure requirements.

The Bond Dealers of America is suggesting a change to the way dealers would get affirmations from sophisticated municipal market professionals under the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed amendments to its rule governing interactions with those market participants to whom dealers owe fewer duties.

Convicted bid-riggers Peter Ghavami, Michael Welty, and Gary Heinz are urging a federal appeals court to overturn a lower court's decision on the basis of an expired statute of limitations, improper testimony, and other alleged errors in their earlier trial, but the federal government is arguing the lower court was correct to punish the former UBS AG executives.

Though the municipal market has recently been focused on primary market disclosure compliance, dealers should expect the Securities and Exchange Commission to start policing the secondary market just as diligently, former SEC enforcement lawyer Peter Chan told The Bond Buyer.

The Securities and Exchange Commission needs to remove regulatory impediments to the development of electronic trading platforms for the fixed income market and work to avoid a looming “liquidity cliff,” commissioner Daniel Gallagher said Friday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission granted approval Friday of a rule establishing supervisory requirements for municipal advisors, the first new Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board MA rule to get the nod since the SEC's registration regime was adopted last year.

Dealers want the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to reduce the cost of compliance and to move quickly to finish the municipal advisor rules, while issuers are unsure they want the MSRB's protection.

Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board chair Kym Arnone wants the board to finish the municipal advisor rules and take more steps to improve transparency before the end what she says is the hardest job she has ever loved in a nearly 30-year muni career.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is proposing to establish limits on the gifts and non-cash benefits municipal advisors can provide in their professional capacities.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced Wednesday that it will discuss municipal advisor pay-to-play rulemaking, market transparency enhancement initiatives, and asset-backed securities disclosure when it meets in Alexandria, Va. Oct. 29-31.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced on Wednesday that it will be offering a free six-week video series to educate municipal securities investors about fundamental disclosure documents.

Three House members are pushing bank regulators to amend their liquidity rule to include investment grade municipal securities as high-quality liquid assets.

John Cross will leave as director of the SEC's Office of Municipal Securities next month to succeed Vicky Tsilas as the Treasury Department's associate tax legislative counsel, according to the SEC and sources. Tsilas is rejoining Ballard Spahr in January.