Law and regulation

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association will help large issuers of municipal bonds pressure the Securities and Exchange Commission for a sophisticated issuer exemption from its municipal advisor rule, and will also request another delay in the rule's effective date if more guidance is not available soon.

The Government Finance Officers Association has released model language for issuer officials to use when interracting with broker-dealers and other entities under the municipal advisor rule.

Asset managers may have to register as municipal advisors to protect themselves from violating the Securities and Exchange Commission's MA rule, which places restrictions on advice concerning muni bond proceeds and other financial products commonly used by states and localities.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority censured and fined broker-dealer Tradition Asiel Securities, Inc. $20,000 for municipal trade reporting violations in a report that fails to mention $110,000 fines for other recent similar violations under “relevant disciplinary history.”

Issuers and underwriters might consider comprehensive reviews of all their deals stretching back a decade to determine if they might have disclosure failures worth voluntarily reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission, securities law experts said Wednesday.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Agency's director of fixed income recently tried to dispel some myths about the agency's oversight of municipal advisors and detailed its plans for examinations.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board got the go-ahead from the Securities and Exchange Commission to consolidate muni dealers' existing fair-pricing obligations into a single rule.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has released guidance on its new consolidated registration rule, which seeks to streamline the process for municipal advisors as well as broker-dealers.

Former CDR Financial Products, Inc. employees Douglas Goldberg and Daniel Naeh were not given any prison time or probation when sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty in 2010 to multiple criminal charges for participating in wide-reaching bid rigging schemes in the municipal market.

Puerto Rican investors in municipal bond closed-ended funds run by UBS AG, Banco Popular and Popular Securities sued the firms.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is revising its proposed rule governing the duties of municipal advisors in response to market comments, and will also propose amending its pay-to-play rule to cover MAs, the MSRB announced Tuesday.

Municipalities struggling with fiscal distress need to be especially mindful of fulfilling their continuing disclosure obligations, regulators and analysts said Friday.

National Association of Local Finance Housing Agencies has re-elected Ernestine Garey, from Invest Atlanta as its president, plus other officers and directors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will release new rules for the reform of money market mutual funds "in the near term," although it has not decided whether they should would apply to municipal funds, SEC chairman Mary Jo White told a House panel Tuesday.

The impact of technology on the financial markets was discussed at a Milken Global Conference panel on changes wrought by regulations passed in the wake of the financial meltdown of 2008.

Non-dealer municipal advisors are concerned that the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed rule on MA supervisory requirements could be costly to the market without greatly benefiting the issuers it is designed to protect.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's new program allowing issuers and underwriters to "self-report" disclosure failures could be a game changer, according to some market participants.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will discuss plans to rebuild the MSRB's real-time reporting system, as well as comments it has received on its proposed municipal advisor conduct rule and best execution rule when the board meets in Alexandria, Va. next week.

Many smaller issuers remain uninformed about what the impending municipal advisor regulatory regime will mean for them, with broker-dealers picking up the slack and providing them with information, according to market participants.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed a new rule with the Securities and Exchange Commission to implement an annual fee of $300 for each municipal advisor professional that is to be paid by registered municipal advisors.