Municipal disclosure

Environmental, social and governance factors are gaining importance in the muni industry.

The knock-on effects of COVID-19 are omnipresent, issuers said at the Bond Buyer's virtual California Public Finance Conference. For some government officials, certain changes to how business gets done have been positive.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents to a Bond Buyer survey said there should be universal ESG standards and just over half said ESG is “critical” or “very important." Consensus on how to and who should create such a language is less clear.

While a majority of the industry says ESG matters, a consensus on how to define it for this 50,000-issuer, $4-trillion marketplace is still uncertain.

One size does not fit all.

The firm added Lynn Martin, president of Fixed Income & Data Services at Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., and Joe Geraci, partner at Old Orchard Capital and former Citi executive.

The bill would have required cities, counties and the California Highway Patrol to post the amounts paid, broken down by individual settlement and judgment.

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled with the Sweetwater Union High School District as well as former Chief Financial Officer Karen Michel.

The board decided last month it would seek commission approval to tweak rules related to mandatory disclosures.

NFMA's white paper could serve as a template for future emergency events, in addition to the current pandemic.

Research suggests limited effectiveness of the SEC's rules requiring disclosure of private debt.

Rating agencies are pushing municipal issuers to build online security risks like ransomware attacks into mitigation strategies that include more transparency.

Board says all the objections to disclosure statements are without legal merit or should be addressed at the plan of adjustment confirmation.

Current rules require disclosures to customers who probably do not need them, industry lobbying groups argue.

Toll roads suffered tremendously from dips in traffic associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city faced significant challenges finishing its annual comprehensive financial report as a result of a cyberattack, an overhaul of financial systems and managing through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sheila King of Eagle Asset Management talks with Chip Barnett on the growing importance of environmental, social and governance issues for municipal governments. She gives examples of what works and what doesn't and why it matters. (14 minutes)

BondLink and ICE said the deal will provide issuers with direct access to real-time market data as they come to market and throughout the lifecycle of a bond.

The administration of Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state legislature have separate efforts that would result in increased climate risk disclosure.

Investors who make the leap toward greater use of alternative data will find that the quality and accuracy of their credit assessments will benefit from the use of alternative data when used in place of subjective or qualitative guesswork.