Washington

The Senate Banking Committee unanimously agreed to recommend the full Senate confirm Kara Stein and Michael Piwowar as Securities and Exchange Commission members and approve chairman Mary Jo White to serve a full term.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, at its quarterly meeting in Boston next week, will consider whether to create a rule to crackdown on front running as well as request comments on applying best execution practices in municipal bond.

The Senate Banking Committee will meet Thursday to vote on whether to recommend the Senate confirm two nominees to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A Virginia circuit court is preparing to reconsider Fluvanna County's lawsuit against financial advisor Davenport & Co., after the state supreme court rejected the firm's motion for a rehearing of the state Supreme Court's decision to reverse a ruling that had favored it.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority fined four firms $106,000 and fined and suspended an individual for municipal securities rule violations.

A Financial Industry Regulatory hearing panel has suspended former broker Anthony Grey for two years, fined him $30,000, and ordered him to disgorge $16,000 in ill-gotten gains for routing muni bond trades through his personal accounts before selling them, through his firm, to retail customers at excessive markups.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced Wednesday it will launch a tool to help issuers keep track of the dates they must file periodic financial disclosures to its EMMA website. But some question whether this will cause a dispute between the MSRB and Digital Assurance Certification.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's EMMA system received more than 500,000 continuing disclosure documents from municipal securities issuers or their agents between July 2009 and March 2013, the board reported Wednesday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will pursue no enforcement action against Rhode Island over its pension financial disclosures, Treasurer Gina Raimondo said.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed rule changes with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would ease the standard of independence for its board.