Many bond lawyers feel that with all municipal rating agencies soon to be beaming live ratings to EMMA, the Securities and Exchange Commission should amend its rules so that issuers no longer have to worry about filing notices of upgrades and downgrades.

Bond lawyers are warning their issuer clients that they are operating at their own peril if they do not spend their bond proceeds in a timely fashion, since Internal Revenue Service agents in audits are raising concerns about proceeds that are spent late or not spent at all.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division is contacting dealers who reported their own possible violations of securities laws under a voluntary enforcement program initiated last year, giving them two weeks to decide if they still want to take advantage of the lenient settlement terms.

Large financial firms can expect continued scrutiny for risk management, internal controls and governance, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said in New York.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is likely to propose requiring alternative trading systems to report quotation information on municipal securities to it in the future, industry officials said after listening to speakers on a federal regulatory update panel at a conference here on Monday afternoon.

New York City public advocate Letitia James has filed a friend of the court brief in support of the Securities and Exchange Commission's pay-to-play restriction on investment advisers, which is under attack in a lawsuit filed by two state Republican parties last year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating bonds issued in 2013 by the former scandal-ridden Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority and underwritten by Citi.

Par volume traded for municipal securities was $2.77 trillion in 2014, the lowest volume in over a decade, according to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board fact book released Wednesday.

The SEC concluded without charges an investigation it launched into Bell, Calif.'s bond debt in 2010 after fraud perpetuated on the city by the former administration came to light.

Securities and Exchange Commission officials are seeking changes to practices in the municipal market and more stringent actions to enforce rules protecting investors.

Former Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord pleaded guilty in a Harrisburg courtroom to two federal counts of attempted extortion.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined two firms $370,000 for violating securities rules in their management of Puerto Rico funds, and dinged another firm $50,000 for violating trade reporting requirements.

The ruling that the former mayor was liable for violations of securities laws as a "control person" is one of which every official of a state or local government issuing debt should be aware.

The cost of complying with the Securities and Exchange Commission's MCDC initiative has been "staggering," an industry representative told the The Bond Buyer's Texas Public Finance Conference.

Bond insurers Assured Guaranty and MBIA may be among the beneficiaries after a federal judge ruled Puerto Rico's Recovery Act was unconstitutional, according to analysts at BTIG LLC.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's disclosure violation self-reporting program has highlighted that issuers and underwriters should take steps to strengthen their disclosure and due diligence procedures to protect themselves from SEC enforcement action, bond lawyers said Thursday.

The Republican parties of New York State and Tennessee will square off against the Securities and Exchange Commission in oral arguments in a federal court March 23 over rules restricting finance professionals from giving money to political candidates.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's requested fiscal year 2016 budget of $1.722 billion would allow the commission to hire hundreds of examination staff and step up enforcement, as well as help the muni office coordinate with self-regulators.

Ex-JPMorgan bankers have asked a federal judge to dismiss federal pay-to-play charges related to the sewer deals that helped push Jefferson County, Ala., into bankruptcy.

Clarke Howatt, the California agency finance director wanted in connection with the disappearance of $1.3 million in bond proceeds has resigned