Washington

The Senate Finance Committee's top Republican said Wednesday that Detroit's bankruptcy filing and Chicago's pension problems illustrate the need for legislation he has proposed that would allow state and local governments to turn to move from defined benefit plans to life insurance company annual annuities.

President Obama described a pro-growth tax reform and jobs package during a speech in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Tuesday, but many of the municipal bond-related measures proposed were ones he unveiled earlier.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on Tuesday named new officers and board members who will assume their posts Oct. 1.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Tuesday announced its officers and Board of Directors members who will begin their terms on October 1, 2013. Daniel Heimowitz, Managing Director at RBC Capital Markets, will serve as Chair of the MSRB. Joseph J. Geraci, Managing Director and Co-Head of Municipal Markets at Citi, will serve as Vice Chair.

For the first time, the SEC has charged an issuer, an underwriter, and one of its officials with falsely claiming in bond documents that the issuer was meeting its secondary market disclosure obligations when it wasn't.

Twelve dealer firms are asking the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board to adopt further restrictions on bond ballot contributions by broker-dealers, and each of those firms has pledged a two-year moratorium on making any such contributions related to bonds they seek to underwrite.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board will issue two concept releases next month, one seeking public comment on whether to develop a best execution rule and another requesting input on enhancing post-trade data reporting and developing standards for collecting pre-trade information.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is proposing a new "execution-with-diligence" standard for municipal trading that would require a dealer to use "reasonable diligence" to determine the market for a bond so the price it provides to a customer is "fair and reasonable under prevailing market conditions."

Miami told bondholders that it will "vigorously defend" itself against securities fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal for money market funds to use floating net asset values could cost state and local governments millions dollars and force them to abandon MMF investments, market participants and a new study asserted Thursday.