Washington

The Securities and Exchange Commission has plans to increase its examination and enforcement staff as President Obama announced in his budget on Tuesday that he wants to double the SEC’s budget by fiscal year 2021, starting with a $200 million increase to $1.78 billion in 2017.

Patrick McCoy, the finance director New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was elected president of the Government Finance Officers Association.

Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. will pay $850,000 to settle securities fraud charges brought by Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander over the firm's underwriting of $39 million of bonds issued for a failed artificial sweetener plant.

Recent opinions issued by the California attorney general’s office may have some municipal advisors and broker-dealers treading carefully to avoid breaking Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board rules.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s release of a final round of 14 underwriter settlements under its self-reporting initiative may indicate issuer settlement s are next.

Municipal market participants on a panel here Tuesday said continuing disclosure is improving and credited the SEC's voluntary enforcement initiative with giving it a boost. They also had positive things to say about federal oversight and rules for non-dealer municipal advisors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged 14 municipal underwriting firms for violations in municipal bond offerings under its voluntary Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation Initiative.

Registration has begun for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) 2016 Regional Compliance Outreach Programs for Broker-Dealers that will take place in New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco.

The House late Monday passed a bill that would treat investment grade and readily marketable municipal securities as high quality liquid assets under a liquidity rule banking regulators adopted in 2014. The Senate is expected to begin considering a companion bill in the near future.

California city attorneys who also provide bond counsel services may not be paid based on a percentage of a city's bond issuances, according to a formal opinion from the office of California Attorney General Kamala Harris.