Washington

Tax controversy lawyer Brad Waterman argues allegations of misconduct against him are “payback” for his winning a student loan bond case.

A federal court judge has approved Miami's $1 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over charges the city acted fraudulently in taking steps to hide its deteriorating financial condition from bondholders.

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority examiners are probing firms’ involvement with bank loans and other alternative financings in the municipal market, a FINRA official said at an industry seminar here.

A large drop in foreclosures through the first half of this year means lower loan losses for state housing finance agencies’ bond programs, according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service.

Underwriters’ counsel should be more proactive in keeping up to date with regulators’ concerns and then communicating those to their underwriter clients, a dealer official said here.

While the Securities and Exchange Commission remains silent on whether there will be more settlements under its continuing disclosure enforcement initiative, an SEC official said any party that voluntarily submitted potential violations will be told whether the commission plans to take action against them.

Dealer groups are concerned that a proposed Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board standalone minimum denomination rule would hurt liquidity and adversely affect participants in the market.

The Internal Revenue Service's Office of Tax-Exempt Bonds has told its auditors that, if an issuer redeems 100% of the outstanding principal amount of its tax-exempt or tax-credit bonds, the audit can be closed without further TEB action.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans to meet here Oct. 26-27 to discuss making certain pre-trade pricing data available on its EMMA website for retail investors as well as updating syndicate offering practices.

The former head of the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt bond office says TEB is ignoring alleged violations on a financing for a Syracuse mall that benefited from breaks sought by Hillary Clinton.