Washington

A Florida panel overseeing Opa-locka’s finances learned that the city is in default on $8.6 million in privately placed bank loans and acceleration of the debt is imminent.

Hawaii officials say they will upgrade an antiquated accounting system and take other steps to ensure that the state won’t repeat the violations it self-reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative was a particularly imaginative enforcement solution directed toward a very specific disclosure issue.

Financial regulators and others should work to reverse the increased narrowing of the municipal market caused by fewer retail investors and wealthier bondholders, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advocate told regulators.

Piper Jaffray & Co. has agreed to pay a $12,500 fine after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority found the firm submitted 23 disclosure documents related to primary offerings late to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA system.

An FBI corruption case is creating political discord in Puerto Rico, as one of two leading gubernatorial candidates asked for the President of Puerto Rico House of Representatives to resign.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced it intends to issue an order that will allow municipal advisors that are also considered investment advisors to be excluded under its pay-to-play rule for investment advisers because they are now covered under a revised Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rule.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will soon introduce the first two of several educational courses it plans to offer as part of its new learning management system designed to keep participants up to date on the municipal market and in compliance with their continuing education requirements.

The default of some unrated nonprofit project bonds in Michigan and subsequent struggle to recover funds highlights the frustration bondholders sometimes feel in working with trustees, who are tasked with acting as the agents of the investors in distressed and default situations.

Ernesto Lanza, formerly a shareholder with the law firm Greenberg Traurig, joined the D.C. office of Clark Hill as a senior counsel in August.