Washington

Amid a federal corruption probe, Opa-locka, Fla.'s former manager, David Chiverton pleaded guilty to taking pay-offs as a state financial oversight panel attempts to prevent the city from having to file for bankruptcy.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ordered UBS to pay $750,000 in damages to two Puerto Rico bondholders.

The House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday passed a bill by a vote of 30 to 26 that would divert the funding the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board gets from enforcement actions, remove the independence of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities, and allow certain banks to be exempt from liquidity coverage ratio requirements.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation requiring more bond disclosure from California issuers.

Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. has preliminarily agreed to pay a penalty and disgorge ill-gotten gains to settle SEC charges that it misled five Wisconsin school districts, which ultimately lost $200 million from investments that failed during the financial crisis.

The orders provide some insight into what the Securities and Exchange Commission considers to be a material false or misleading statement in an offering document.

The Securities and Exchange Commission should consider obtaining registration and disclosure authority over corporate conduit borrowers in the municipal market, said SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday announced that a subsidiary of BOK Financial Corp. that served as indenture trustee and dissemination agent for municipal conduit bonds previously tied to securities fraud has agreed to pay more than $1.6 million to settle charges that it helped to conceal numerous problems and red flags from investors in the securities.

The Government Finance Officers Association and the National Association of Bond Lawyers on Thursday each issued guidance to issuers and counsel on how to comply with tax-exempt bond rules after the issuance of tax-advantaged bonds.

The Government Finance Officers Association sent an alert to its members on Thursday about the importance of timely disclosures in the wake of issuer settlements with the Securities and Exchange Commission under its voluntary continuing disclosure enforcement initiative.