Bonds

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board said the current bond adjustment deal would collapse unless the bankruptcy judge said a recently passed law, which bars pension “cuts,” actually allows for the board’s planned pension changes. Puerto Rico Oversight Board Attorney Martin Bienenstock raised these concerns in a pretrial conference and hearing leading up to the Plan
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Municipal advisor firms have an important responsibility to ensure that their municipal advisor professionals are qualified in accordance with MSRB rules. Municipal advisors should also be considering how they expect to fulfill their fiduciary duties to their municipal entity clients if the firm is not preparing to have its associated persons appropriately qualified beyond November
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The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board plans to request comment on its Rule G-27 related to dealer supervision in the next month. That and a number of other issues were discussed during the MSRB’s quarterly board meeting this week. “As part of our commitment to prudent and practical regulation, we are focused on a retrospective review
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Puerto Rico’s leaders welcomed Pres. Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act budget proposal for its inclusion of funding for three programs that would benefit the island. As it stood on Friday, Biden’s $1.85 trillion spending and taxing proposal would introduce the Supplemental Security Income program to provide $1 billion to island residents, would increase the
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Municipal bonds were lightly traded and benchmark yields steady to end October while U.S. Treasuries bounced throughout the trading session, ending stronger near the close, and market participants are pointing to near-term volatility for both asset classes going into November. In the near-term, the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee meeting should contain “an intense discussion
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Municipals were stronger on the backs of a U.S. Treasury rally but underperformed the movements there, pushing ratios on the 10-year near 80% and the 30-year close to 90%. Triple-A benchmark scales were bumped two to three basis points on bonds outside nine-years while the 10-year UST fell seven basis points and the 30-year fell
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The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board earlier this month issued a request for comment on two draft compliance resources — one for dealers and the other for municipal advisors — concerning new-issue pricing. The stated goal for the compliance resources is “to enhance understanding regarding the existing regulatory standards applicable to regulated entities’ supervision of conduct
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In oral argument before a federal appeals court, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association contended that a Securities and Exchange Commission temporary exemption for municipal advisors during the height of the pandemic, was “arbitrary and capricious and unsupported by substantial evidence.” Making SIFMA’s case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
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