Municipal issuers spent $2,000 to $18,000 to do continuing disclosure reviews under the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative and the vast majority of them felt they were forced to do them, the Government Finance Officers Association said during a spirited panel discussion here Tuesday.

Municipal issuers need to be prepared to fight against Securities and Exchange Commission efforts to directly regulate them, members of the Government Finance Officers Associations' Committee on Governmental Debt Management said Saturday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged an Atlanta-based investment advisory firm and two executives with fraud for allegedly selling investments to pension funds for the city's police and firefighters, transit workers, and other employees that were illegal under state law.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined a dealer firm and fined and suspended an individual for violations of Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rules, FINRA revealed in its monthly disciplinary report for May.

The U.S. government wrongfully extended the statute of limitations to obtain bid-rigging convictions for three ex-UBS bankers, lawyers told an appeals court.

Any well-publicized enforcement action over whether bank loans should be treated as securities would certainly provide some guidance on this issue, Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board executive director Lynnette Kelly told muni analysts meeting here.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s appellate tribunal has revised its sanction guidelines, proposing significant increases in the highest level of fines for disciplinary actions and tougher sanctions for cases involving fraud and recommendations of unsuitable investments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has frequently pursued recent municipal market enforcement actions in federal court rather than in front of its own administrative law judges, where critics have charged that the SEC enjoys a distinct home field advantage.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority faced criticism from House Republicans Friday wondered if the broker-dealer self-regulator is too heavy-handed with small firms.

U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli has until May 20 to respond to a request from Miami, Fla.'s former budget director that the Supreme Court hear his argument that he should be shielded from a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit.

Maverick County, Texas, faces an uncertain future after losing the operator of its $42 million private detention center that defaulted on its debt amid a federal corruption investigation and missing audits.

StateTrust Investments, Inc. has been penalized $90,000 and censured by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a settlement over charges it broke Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rules when it sold Puerto Rico bonds for an amount less than the issuer's specified minimum denomination.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials stand behind their disclosure after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened an informal inquiry into the district’s compliance with legal guidelines in the use of bond proceeds to buy iPad tablets.

New York State and New York City comptrollers Thomas DiNapoli and Scott Stringer, respectively, called on the SEC to compel fossil fuel industry companies to better disclosure climate change material risks

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a New York City-based financial advisor with fraud, saying he stole at least $20 million from customers who were told their money would be invested in municipal bonds when it actually evaporated in riskier trades.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined two firms $55,000 for muni trade rule violations and suspended a former broker, as well as fined him to pay $5,000 in fines and ordered him to disgorge $2,837 of ill-gotten gains plus interest, for making unsuitable municipal securities recommendations to clients.

Two divisions of Morgan Stanley have agreed to be censured and pay $675,000 to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority charges that the dealers misrepresented taxable municipal bond interest paid to customers as tax-exempt.

Nine large public pension funds, including those from New York and Connecticut, have asked the SEC to strengthen the disclosure of corporate board diversity.

A federal appeals court will hear oral arguments May 15 in the case of three convicted bid riggers seeking to have their convictions overturned.

A Republican congressman said Tuesday he is concerned that the Securities and Exchange Commission's approach to municipal market enforcement risks creating an environment where only big players will get a seat at the table.