Washington

Peter Chan, the architect of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation initiative, will join Morgan, Lewis & Bockius as a partner in the firm's Chicago office, it announced Thursday.

Fluvanna County, Va.'s three-year legal tussle with Davenport & Co., has come to a close after the county's Board of Supervisors accepted an offer from the firm to drop its pursuit of $1.6 million in legal fees in exchange for an end to the suit and a public statement by the board retracting the claims it made against Davenport.

Dealers want the de minimis contribution limit increased in the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed application of its Rule G-37 on political contributions to municipal advisors, and one lawyer told the board the rule is probably unconstitutional unless it is raised.

Three municipal securities regulators plan to hold the first Compliance Outreach Program for Municipal Advisors in Chicago on Nov. 3 and are asking folks to register for it.

Securities and Exchange Commission member Michael Piwowar said Tuesday that it isn't clear if implementing a uniform fiduciary standard of conduct for broker-dealers and investment advisers providing personalized investment advice about securities would benefit retail investors.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency's public finance ratings are now available on Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's disclosure website EMMA, adding to the existing information from Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.

Dealer groups are making a final push for changes to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's proposed best execution rule, telling the Securities and Exchange Commission that it should hold off on any changes to how firms interact with sophisticated municipal market professionals until the MSRB can solicit comments on that topic directly.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board could accomplish many of its transparency goals more cheaply by providing more information itself than by requiring dealers to provide it, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association told the MSRB Friday.

The bank liquidity rule is more likely to drive up the costs of investments than infrastructure development for state and local governments, according to a Wells Fargo Securities research report.

The Government Finance Officers Association has adopted best practices to help issuers hire brokers to invest their bond proceeds under the municipal advisor rule, and to improve the valuation of pension plans.