Law and regulation

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority censured and fined Greenwich, Conn.-based Interactive Brokers, Inc. was censured and fined $7,500 municipal securities trade reporting failures.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating West Contra Costa, Calif. United School District and its general obligation bond financings dating back to 2009.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is asking for comment on proposed changes to its G-14 trade reporting rule, including whether to require dealers to identify conditional trade commitments, which differ from newly issued bonds but are reported at the same time.

Many municipal market professionals are concerned that the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed best execution rule would not be functionally different from the fair pricing obligations that the MSRB and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority already impose on dealers.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced Tuesday that it will rebate $3.6 million to broker-dealers because it has collected more money in technology fees than the board needs to maintain its systems.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the state of Kansas with violating federal securities laws by failing to disclose in bond documents that the state's pension system was significantly underfunded, creating a repayment risk for investors.

A lawsuit challenging the Securities and Exchange Commission's pay-to-play rules could have implications for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's effort to write such rules for muni advisers, as well an existing rule for dealers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission could have trouble punishing issuers and underwriters in court if they choose to fight rather than settle under the Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative, lawyers and an economist said during a Thursday webinar.

Issuers believe guidance recently released by bond lawyers will help them determine whether they made materially misleading statements in offering documents that they could consider self-reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Kym Arnone, managing director at Barclays Capital, will become the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's new chair beginning Oct. 1.

The National Association of Bond Lawyers has released a paper designed to provide issuers considering whether to participate in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative with an analytical framework to decide whether they made material misstatements about their continuing disclosure compliance.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will request public comment this fall on a proposal that would require a dealer to disclose to its customers what it paid for the same security on that same day.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposal to simplify its rules on professional designations by limiting the activities of some dealer representatives and eliminating one of its professional designations.

A bill quietly introduced months ago may have helped get the SEC moving toward developing rules that require dealers to disclose their markups in riskless principal transactions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's changes to its disclosure violation self-reporting program are somewhat helpful to issuers but may create further problems in their relationships with underwriters, market participants said.

Securities and Exchange commission member Michael Piwowar wants to explore the possibility of simplifying and standardizing municipal bond deals, because he believes that overly-complex transactions are contributing to muni market opacity and higher issuance costs.

Securities and Exchange Commission officials have modified their program for issuers and underwriters to voluntarily self-report continuing disclosure failures, saying they want to encourage as much participation in the program as possible.

Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico's sole non-voting member of Congress, has introduced legislation that would allow the commonwealth's government to authorize certain government-owned corporations to enter Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy.

In light of the MSRB's dual mission to protect both municipal entities and investors, SIFMA urges the MSRB to interpret MSRB Rule G-17, effective immediately, to apply specific baseline provisions to municipal advisors.

UBS is facing more than $600 million in damage claims filed by Puerto Rico investors in closed-end bond funds, the bank said in its second quarter earnings report Tuesday.