Law and regulation

Crystal City, Texas has reached an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service to settle tax rule violations and preserve the tax-exempt status of interest already paid on $13.94 million of jail bonds issued by an authority in 2003 and now in default.

Future Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative settlements may offer more detail on the Securities and Exchange Commission's priorities and the SEC's Office of Municipal Securities may offer more municipal advisor rule guidance, commission officials said Thursday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will probably use emergency court action to stop state and local governments from selling municipal bonds if it thinks their offerings are fraudulent, an enforcement division official told bond lawyers meeting here.

National Association of Bond Lawyers members elected the groups' officers for 2014-2015 on Wednesday during NABL's annual meeting.

Bankruptcies in Jefferson County and Detroit as well as regulatory and enforcement actions have garnered increased scrutiny of the bond market in Washington, and market participants need to better understand the policy-making process, a Treasury Department official said.

William Beatty, Washington State's director of securities, became president of the North American Securities Administrators Association on Tuesday.

A federal appeals court recently agreed with a lower court that former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux does not have immunity from Securities and Exchange Commission charges, a decision some experts think could have implications for the SEC's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative or other enforcement actions going forward.

A federal banking rule that doesn't classify municipal bonds as high-quality liquid assets needs to be reworked to ensure it won't impede critical infrastructure development, Sen. Chuck Schumer told regulators on Tuesday.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers has many ongoing projects, including completing an analysis of the long-term implications of a self-reporting disclosure enforcement program, commenting on the SEC's 2012 municipal market report, and providing regulators with its views on tax issues, said its incoming president Antonio "Tony" Martini.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined two firms a total of $31,000 dollars for violations of municipal securities rules, FINRA disclosed in the September monthly disciplinary actions it released Monday.

Two ex-JPMorgan bankers shouldn't be allowed to give statements six years after taking the Fifth Amendment in the Jefferson County, Ala., sewer bond and swap case, the SEC says.

The Bond Dealers of America has hired two new people and promoted a current employee to boost its advocacy efforts.

Bank regulators may think excluding municipal securities from high-quality liquid assets in their liquidity rule is no big deal, but Moody's Investors Service issued a report on Friday saying it may negatively affect credit ratings in the muni market.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, the primary regulator of the $3.7 trillion municipal market, plans to move back to Washington, D.C. after spending more than 15 years in Alexandria, Va.

A Treasury Department official, a former Federal Reserve Board chair, congressional staffers and state treasurers spoke at an industry-sponsored municipal securities conference on Thursday that was closed to the press.

Dave Sanchez, a lawyer who previously worked in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities, has launched a new practice that will focus on securities law compliance for issuers and municipal advisors.

A large number of dealer firms have voluntarily reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission deals they underwrote where issuers failed to disclose noncompliance with their continuing disclosure agreements, the SEC's enforcement director said Wednesday.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has hired former BondDesk Trading LLC president John Bagley as its chief market structure officer, the MSRB announced Wednesday.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, calling municipal securities the "lifeblood" of U.S. infrastructure development, pressed regulators to revise federal banking liquidity rules to classify certain munis as high-quality liquid assets.

The National Association of State Treasurers' priorities include maintaining the tax- exempt status of municipal bonds, preventing local government investment pools from being hurt by money market mutual fund reforms, and helping to develop criteria under which munis could be considered high-quality liquid assets, said its incoming president, David Lillard, Tennessee' treasurer.