Washington

The IRS is auditing $100.89 million of state capital project bonds that the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation issued in October 2006.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board proposed rule changes Wednesday that would require dealers to disclose more details about their contributions to bond ballot campaigns.

Municipal market participants have mixed opinions about the benefits and burdens of a proposal to restrict the ability of underwriters to consent to bond-document changes.

Attorneys for Miami have proposed a settlement to head off federal civil charges proposed by Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed a similar case against the city in the 1990s.

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board released a proposal Thursday aimed at increasing protection for retail investors who trade municipal bonds online.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts released updated disclosure recommendations for issuers of variable-rate demand obligations and other short-term securities on Wednesday.

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee has asked financial industry participants and members of the public for suggestions about legislative alternatives to the so-called Volcker Rule.

The MSRB has drafted a new rule G-45 that would require underwriters or other primary distributors of Section 529 college savings plans to provide detailed information about these plans to the board’s EMMA system on a quarterly basis. But the board would not disseminate the data fight now.

Regulatory efforts to improve municipal bond pricing transparency have resulted in lower prices paid by retail buyers of muni bonds, according to preliminary results of a study on muni pricing and trading being conducted by Erik Sirri, former director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's trading and markets division.

John Cross, the associate tax legislative counsel in the Treasury's Office of Tax Policy, is to become director of the SEC's new Office of Municipal Securities in September.