The SEC wants a Puerto Rico federal court to agree that Jose Ramirez, a former UBS Puerto Rico employee, engaged in a scheme to defraud investors in closed-end funds with large investments in Puerto Rico bonds.

Five firms have agreed to pay a total of nearly $920,000 to settle separate rule violations related to municipal securities.

The Senate Banking Committee’s scheduled hearing on Jay Clayton’s nomination is expected to include some questions from Democrats on Clayton’s ties to Wall Street and ability to protect investors.

A guilty plea from Aaron Troodler, the former executive director of the Ramapo Local Development Corp., for criminal securities fraud means he could face a maximum of 25 years in prison.

Marrien Neilson, the former BOK Financial employee the SEC said was responsible for concealing some of Christopher Brogdon's securities fraud, agreed to a first of a kind ban on her acting as an indenture trustee or dissemination agent for municipal bonds as well as a $55,000 payment to settle the charges.

Though the final Treasury Regulations were greeted as more palatable than versions proposed earlier, a deeper dive results in a list of questions that need to be considered.

Some analysts see an opportunity in hospital bonds, as the spreads in that sector have continued to widen even as the push to repeal the Affordable Care Act loses steam.

Six holders of municipal revenue bonds underwritten by Christopher Brogdon are trying to recover as much as $1 million in lost capital as well as other expenses from bond trustee BOK Financial Securities.

Morgan Stanley will pay a $115,000 fine and $55,284 in restitution after FINRA found the firm engaged in muni transactions where it charged prices that were not fair or reasonable.

Major investment firms made unethical and probably illegal loans to Puerto Rico’s government from 2000 to 2008, according to a report from a populist financial industry watchdog.

House Financial Services Committee Republicans have floated a revised version of a their Financial CHOICE Act that would require the Securities and Exchange Commission to review municipal market and other self-regulatory organizations' inefficiencies as well as reform its enforcement process

The House Financial Services Committee intends to review municipal bond regulators and other aspects of the capital markets with an eye toward rolling back certain programs, according to an oversight plan from the committee.

Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. has agreed to pay a $250,000 fine after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority found rule violations including the failure to report accurate interest rate reset information for 251,507 variable rate demand obligation securities.

The Internal Revenue Service has determined that District of Columbia’s PILOT revenue bonds are taxable.

Moody’s Investors Service withdrew its credit rating for the Town of Ramapo, N.Y. after it failed to provide audited financial statements for the 2015 fiscal year.

Phoenix-based Lawson Financial Corp. had its Financial Industry Regulatory Authority membership revoked and its CEO and president was barred from the industry after FINRA found they fraudulently sold millions of dollars of municipal revenue bonds.

Two Puerto Rico residents are firing back at UBS, saying the firm's challenge in federal court of an $18 million Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration award over losses in Puerto Rico bonds is "a hopeless and baseless attempt at an unwarranted do over."

Financial advisor Hilltop Securities Inc. – formerly First Southwest – has agreed to pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit Rhode Island Commerce Corp. brought in the wake of the failed 38 Studios deal.

A federal judge has denied former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux's motion for a new trial after a jury found him guilty of securities fraud for misleading municipal bond investors, but he is still exploring options for appeal, his lawyer said.

Marc Wyatt, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, plans to leave the SEC next month to return to the private sector, the commission announced on Monday.