Law and regulation

Inspections of municipal advisors will be low-stress and MAs will be notified in advance before seeing any Securities and Exchange Commission personnel at their doors, members of the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations told non-dealer advisors.

The National Association of Independent Public Finance Advisors voted at its annual meeting Thursday to change its name to the National Association of Municipal Advisors, and has elected Terri Heaton of Springsted Inc. as the renamed organization's president.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is concerned that Municipal Advisors are not registering properly and that some may be attempting to manipulate the MA rule as a marketing tool.

The cyber consultant who discovered that Cutwater Asset Management's server for its local government investment pool clients was not secure, says this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Months after the municipal advisor registration rule's final effective date, there is still considerable confusion among both regulated entities and issuers about what the new regulations require.

Former Financial Industry Regulatory Authority vice chairman Stephen Luparello received $5.34 million of total compensation in 2012 — the highest of any of the individuals in The Bond Buyer's annual survey of the compensation levels at 21 industry, self-regulatory, state and local, and muni related groups.

Municipal issuers need to understand the thinking inside the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division, take steps to protect themselves, and think about whether fundamental changes to muni market regulation might be in their best interests, said former SEC lawyer Peter Chan.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers has renamed its Fundamentals of Municipal Bond Law Seminar scholarship program after the late Frederic "Rick" L. Ballard Jr.

Peter Chan, the architect of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative, will join Morgan, Lewis & Bockius as a partner in the firm's Chicago office, it announced Thursday.

Fluvanna County, Va.'s three-year legal tussle with Davenport & Co., has come to a close after the county's Board of Supervisors accepted an offer from the firm to drop its pursuit of $1.6 million in legal fees in exchange for an end to the suit and a public statement by the board retracting the claims it made against Davenport.

Dealers want the de minimis contribution limit increased in the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed application of its Rule G-37 on political contributions to municipal advisors, and one lawyer told the board the rule is probably unconstitutional unless it is raised.

Three municipal securities regulators plan to hold the first Compliance Outreach Program for Municipal Advisors in Chicago on Nov. 3 and are asking folks to register for it.

Securities and Exchange Commission member Michael Piwowar said Tuesday that it isn't clear if implementing a uniform fiduciary standard of conduct for broker-dealers and investment advisers providing personalized investment advice about securities would benefit retail investors.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency's public finance ratings are now available on Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's disclosure website EMMA, adding to the existing information from Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.

Dealer groups are making a final push for changes to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed best execution rule, telling the Securities and Exchange Commission that it should hold off on any changes to how firms interact with sophisticated municipal market professionals until the MSRB can solicit comments on that topic directly.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board could accomplish many of its transparency goals more cheaply by providing more information itself than by requiring dealers to provide it, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association told the MSRB Friday.

The bank liquidity rule is more likely to drive up the costs of investments than infrastructure development for state and local governments, according to a Wells Fargo Securities research report.

The Government Finance Officers Association has adopted best practices to help issuers hire brokers to invest their bond proceeds under the municipal advisor rule, and to improve the valuation of pension plans.

Issuers battling dealer firms over the right to seek arbitration to settle disputes over auction rate securities are planning to take their case to the Supreme Court now that a federal appeals court has ruled against them.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Barclays Capital Inc. with failing to maintain an adequate internal compliance system after it acquired the advisory business of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.