Washington

Rhode Island asset manager Michael Riley has asked the SEC to examine the Providence, R.I., pension fund over a $62 million spike in its unfunded liability.

The Government Finance Officers Association is calling for changes in the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's core conduct rule for municipal advisors to reduce the costs and burdens for issuers.

The House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2016 bill Wednesday that would keep Securities and Exchange Commission funding consistent at the 2015 enacted level of $1.5 billion, about $222 million short of President Obama’s FY2016 request.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced enforcement actions against 36 municipal underwriting firms Thursday for violations in muni bond offerings, fining them a total of about $9.3 million in settlements under the Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has added a new feature to its EMMA website that allows users to locate disclosure information that might otherwise be difficult to find in cases where new CUSIP numbers are assigned to portions of bonds after issuance.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined Wells Fargo Securities $12,500 for trade reporting violations and barred an individual from the securities industry for allowing the fraudulent transfer of $160,000 from a customer to an unrelated third party.

Municipal securities dealers are worried that their participation in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative could cause them problems with multiple regulators, and have asked the SEC for reassurance that their businesses will not be impeded because they chose to report under the MCDC.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is proposing to ease the standard of independence for one of its public board member positions.

The United States Supreme Court is poised to decide whether or not to hear the case of former Miami budget director Michael Boudreaux, whose attorneys told the nation's top court it should accept the case to decide an important question of how exposed municipal officials should be to federal government lawsuits.

A federal appeals court denied the appeals of a trio of convicted bid-riggers Thursday in a ruling that could have lasting effects for future fraudsters.