Law and regulation

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.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities is hiring two new attorney advisers in the latest expansion of the team tasked with providing muni market expertise to federal regulators.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's new money market fund rules will make MMF investors more conservative while retaining the funds' usefulness for most market participants, including tax-exempt investors and municipalities, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency has reached agreement with the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to have the agency's ratings available on EMMA.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board sought approval Thursday for the first municipal advisor rule the muni industry's self regulator has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to approve since SEC adopted its final MA rule in September.

Municipal bond issuers, dealers, and lawyers are making another push to alter the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative, asking the SEC to narrow the program's scope and delay its deadline by several months.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law on Wednesday that will expand an existing law to require California debt issuers to disclose any direct loans from banks to the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Wednesday proposed a revised draft rule to establish the core duties of municipal advisors, tweaking some of the provisions that generated the most controversy in January's first draft.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 on Wednesday to require institutional money market mutual funds to adopt a floating net asset value.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Tuesday filed a revised proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission to require dealers to provide annual municipal securities training for registered persons who regularly conduct or supervise muni business.

Since the release of the Securities and Exchange Commission's final municipal advisor registration rule in September 2013, the Bond Dealers of America and its members have dedicated significant efforts and resources to work with regulators, educate issuers and ultimately be prepared to make a successful implementation of the rule.