West Penn Allegheny Health System revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission may sue it over accounting discrepancies.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined three Chicago-based firms a total of $40,000 for violations of muni trade reporting and other rules.

Lawyers for three former bankers convicted in May of rigging bids for municipal bond contracts have filed appeal notices with an appellate court. The appeals were filed late last week with the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan by attorneys for Dominick Carollo, Steven E. Goldberg, and Peter Grimm, former employees at General Electric Co. affiliates.

After weighing which financing was least likely to provoke a third investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Miami chose a limited public offering to refinance a bank loan.

David Lerner Associates Inc. has agreed to pay some $4.3 million in fines and restitution for charging excessive markups on transactions of municipal bonds and collateralized-mortgage obligations between 2005 and 2012.

Walter Timpone, the defense attorney for one of the three convicted former banking executives in the muni bond bid-rigging trial is confident about an appeal.

After hearing tearful requests for leniency, federal Judge Harold Baer imposed prison and fines on three former bankers convicted of municipal bond bid rigging.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. agreed to pay $14.5 million to settle charges that a former vice president engaged in pay to play when working for the firm.

The SEC Thursday charged Goldman, Sachs & Co. and one of its former investment bankers with "pay-to-play" violations involving undisclosed campaign contributions to then-Massachusetts state treasurer Timothy P. Cahill while he was a candidate for governor.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered five firms to pay $137,500 in fines for violations of trade reporting and other municipal securities rules.

Moody's Investors Service has expanded its review for potentially downgrading Miami to include pension obligations and health care costs in addition to pending SEC charges.

The Internal Revenue Service has stepped up its efforts to investigate possible misconduct in the municipal bond sector, more than doubling the number of examinations it conducts per year.

The IRS is auditing $98.5 million of general obligation refunding bonds that the State of Texas Water Financial Assistance issued in 2002.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will not pursue regulations aimed reducing the susceptibility of money market mutual funds to market runs, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro said in a statement Wednesday night.

One of the biggest investor concerns about unfunded public pension liabilities, is whether a government's payment obligations to retirees will compete with debt repayment, according to a Wells Fargo report issued Wednesday.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered four firms to pay more than $53,000 in fines and restitution to customers for violations of municipal securities fair-dealing, pricing and other rules.

The IRS is auditing $100.89 million of state capital project bonds that the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation issued in October 2006.

Attorneys for Miami have proposed a settlement to head off federal civil charges proposed by Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed a similar case against the city in the 1990s.

The federal judge assigned to the upcoming bid-rigging trial against three former UBS Financial Services Inc. bankers has struck down requests to drop all six criminal counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, and witness tampering.

The SEC will be asked to allow federal civil charges to be filed against Miami for failing to disclose serious budget problems in its bond offerings.