Washington

Some broker-dealer firms appear to have violated the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's Rule G-37 by engaging in negotiated muni business with issuers within two years after their municipal finance professionals made significant contributions to officials of those issuers, the SEC said Friday.

Moody's Investors Service has expanded its review for potentially downgrading Miami to include pension obligations and health care costs in addition to pending SEC charges.

The Internal Revenue Service has stepped up its efforts to investigate possible misconduct in the municipal bond sector, more than doubling the number of examinations it conducts per year.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro may have lost the first round in her push to reform the $2.6 trillion money market mutual fund industry, but the fight has only just begun.

Pre-trade reporting of muni bond prices by "alternative trading systems" could improve liquidity in the muni market. Or, such reporting could make liquidity worse. Market participants aren't sure which.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has filed proposed rule changes with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would require the exact par value of trades up to $5 million to be reported over EMMA on a near-real time basis.

The IRS is auditing $98.5 million of general obligation refunding bonds that the State of Texas Water Financial Assistance issued in 2002.

The Securities and Exchange Commission will not pursue regulations aimed reducing the susceptibility of money market mutual funds to market runs, SEC chairman Mary Schapiro said in a statement Wednesday night.

The number of continuing disclosures muni bond issuers filed with the MSRB continues to increase, with issuers submitting 139,043 documents in the 12-months ending June 2012, according to a report released Wednesday.

One of the biggest investor concerns about unfunded public pension liabilities, is whether a government's payment obligations to retirees will compete with debt repayment, according to a Wells Fargo report issued Wednesday.