Washington

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board filed an amendment with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday to make clear that although its revised rule against pay-to-play practices does not take effect until Aug. 17, there is still a two-year lookback under the current rule for individuals who make contributions before that date and then become associated with dealers.

Underhanded pay-to-play practices may come back in play.

The par amount of municipal trades reached the highest level in nearly three years during the second quarter of 2016, showing a rebound from significant declines in the second half of last year, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board statistics posted Wednesday.

Colleen Woodell, former chief credit officer of global and corporate government ratings with S&P Global Ratings, will become the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s new chair on Oct. 1.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans to rebate $5.5 million proportionally among dealers, file a proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission on markup disclosure, and scrap the idea of requiring municipal advisors to disclose information about their issuer client's bank loans or privately placed municipal securities.

The small Florida city of Opa-locka is on the verge of bankruptcy, according to the head of a state-appointed oversight board.

Goldman Sachs & Co. has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle Financial Industry Regulatory Authority charges that it submitted inaccurate auction rate securities information to a reporting system and did not have a supervisory system in place to catch the problems.

A Pennsylvania school district said it expects to receive a proposed adverse determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service stating general obligation bonds it issued in 2005 and advance refunded in 2013 are taxable.

The Securities and Exchange Commission was legally required by fiscal 2016 appropriation act provisions to reject changes to Rule G-37 that extended political contribution restrictions to municipal advisors, three state Republican groups told federal appeals court judges.

Not enough has been done to provide municipal issuers, obligated parties and underwriters the clarity sought and needed by the market.