Munis

The top two municipal bond insurers wrapped $28.224 billion in 2022, a 30.1% decrease from the $37.486 billion of deals done in 2021, according to Refinitiv data.

The political uncertainty could eat into the number of "clean weeks" for issuance, said Citi's Vikram Rai.

"January issuance is at a multi-year low, with large declines in both taxable and tax-exempt issuance," said Matt Fabian, a partner at Municipal Market Analytics. 

A group of top local government associations have formed a new legal coalition aimed at Supreme Court cases that carry municipal implications.

The top bond counsel firms combined for a total of $359.123 billion in 7,878 transactions during 2022, down from the $456.136 billion in 11,819 deals in 2021.

By an almost four-to-one margin, voters approved a charter amendment requiring voter approval to transfer ownership of the county's airport, seaport or tollway.

Open data standards will help Flint "tell its story" and benchmark itself against other cities, said CFO Robert Widigan.

Municipal bond issuers are worried about what the recently passed Financial Data Transparency Act is going to cost them to implement.

Rising interest rates, market volatility and the loss of business and revenue top the public finance industry's concerns for 2023.

BVAL marketed its bond valuation methods as sophisticated but sometimes based the valuation on a single broker quote, the SEC said.

School districts must sell bonds based on their own ratings or with private insurance because the triple-A-rated Permanent School Fund's capacity is nearly maxed out.

A demand survey conducted by CDLAC in November foreshadowed $11 billion in requests from applicants for the state's private activity bonds.

With the Permanent University Fund only benefitting the two biggest public universities in Texas, the state legislature will consider creating an endowment for other higher education institutions.

The alliance will hold semi-annual conferences to consider innovative solutions to infrastructure financing and delivery.

Improved disclosure is likely to have a cost, though analysts have long maintained the benefits outweight that.

Treasury typically suspends the sale of new state and local government series securities when nearing the borrowing cap.

Moody's downgraded St. Mary's College of California to Baa3 with a negative outlook, affecting $53 million in debt issued through the California

Municipal financial advisors saw $304.569 billion of business in 5,935 transactions in 2022, down from the $377.886 billion in 8,611 deals in 2021.

New regulations appear to be highlighting disagreements on major muni market topics.

The firm is expected to announce the new muni leadership team next week.