Bonds

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board expects to spend $43.3 million during the fiscal year that began Friday, releasing a FY 2022 budget highlighting investments in technology and a focus on upholding the public trust. “Informed by extensive engagement with our stakeholders, we are making strategic investments focused on strengthening the capital market that facilitates economic

Federal authorities dropped the hammer Thursday on the former head of fixed income trading at the now defunct Atlanta-based IFS Securities Inc. for allegedly engaging in unauthorized and speculative trading activity that bankrupted the firm. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed criminal and civil

Ferguson, Missouri, won back an investment grade rating from Moody’s Investors Service six years after losing it over fiscal strains created after a white city police officer shot a black man to death in 2014 and spurred weeks of protests and unrest. Moody’s Wednesday lifted the city’s issuer rating into investment grade territory of Baa3

Municipals were slightly weaker outside of five years Wednesday, with triple-A benchmarks cutting levels by a basis point or two, after four days of a correction to higher yields not seen since February and March of this year. U.S. Treasuries pulled back from Tuesday’s losses earlier in the morning, but yields rose into the afternoon

As Congress debates the size of a major budget bill, mayors Wednesday urged lawmakers to preserve the billions set aside for affordable housing, which they said is key to cities’ fiscal health. The budget reconciliation package, one of several high-stake bills Congress is debating this week, currently totals $3.5 trillion but is widely expected to

Tarrant County, Texas, will be authorized to issue $400 million of transportation bonds if voters approve the proposal Nov. 2. The bond issue by the fast-growing county that includes Fort Worth and its booming suburbs would be its first for transportation since 2006. Proposition A splits the $400 million into two categories. A scene from

State and local governments would be encouraged to consider public-private partnerships for complicated projects like rural broadband or large transportation developments under the bipartisan infrastructure bill being debated by Congress this week. The legislation doubles private activity bond volume for surface transportation projects to $30 billion from $15 billion, a central financing tool for P3

WASHINGTON — Robert Kaplan, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, announced that he would step down next week, just hours after Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said he would resign. Kaplan said Monday afternoon he wanted “to eliminate any distractions” at the Fed after it was revealed that he had engaged in

Dan Hynes, the former Illinois deputy governor for budget and the economy, joined Jefferies LLC this month where he will work to elevate the firm’s presence in the state and in the broader Midwest. Hynes hopes to parlay his public experience “in the trenches” of state government to build on the firm’s Illinois and Midwest

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 24 bills that allocate $15 billion to further the state’s efforts to combat climate change, drought and wildfires. The total includes additional funding agreed to by the Legislature after the $261.4 billion budget was passed by the constitutional deadline and signed by the governor in July, but also some funding

Cities have spent the last decade seeking the kind of federal support found in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that the House may vote on as soon as Monday, said mayors and representatives from the National Urban League in a press conference today. “Mayors in the U.S. have been in infrastructure week for over a decade

Muni issuers are considering and beginning to roll out blockchain based solutions, including distributed ledger technology for various muni projects, but the market remains nascent. The introduction of blockchain and its use of digital ledger technology caught market attention in 2016 as a banking alternative that could transform operating systems, and for munis, promised the

Municipal yields edged higher Friday as selling pressure emerged early and buyers greeted it by demanding some concessions, though municipals still outperformed taxables by a large degree on the week. Triple-A benchmark yields rose another two to three basis points, moving the municipal 10-year to 1% on both Refinitiv MMD and ICE Data Services scales.

The Puerto Rico House of Representatives could approve next week restructured bonds for the Puerto Rico bankruptcy, which may move the process along. House Speaker Rafael Hernández Montañez plans to submit a bill to allow the sale ofrestructured bonds consistent with the proposed Plan of Adjustment, said Lilliam Maldonado, spokesperson for Rep. Jesús Santa Rodríguez,

Boston’s mayoral race has captured national headlines, with the city in line to have its first elected female and minority mayor. It reflects demographic change in a city noted over the years for clinging to its traditions. “Every significant candidate was identified as a person of color, and the four top finishers were women,” said

Municipals could not ignore broader markets and triple-A scales cut levels by two to three basis points along the curve, but again largely outperformed a major risk-on trade Thursday that moved U.S. Treasuries to trade off double digits while equities boomed. Secondary trading showed weaker prints into the early afternoon. Large blocks of benchmark credits

Making the Municipal Liquidity Facility a permanent emergency lending program would be “valuable and forward thinking” for the Federal Reserve to implement, the president-elect of the National Association of State Treasurers told a congressional panel Thursday. “Set parameters that consider the variety of states’ needs and circumstances,” said Connecticut Treasurer Shawn Wooden, who will succeed

Municipals sat tight again Wednesday as broader markets digested the Federal Open Market Committee leaving interest rates unchanged and noting the tapering process may begin sooner. The news was largely expected and U.S. Treasuries ended the day a touch firmer while equities made up for lost ground though pared back earlier gains. “The biggest news

Adjustments to the hit from COVID-19 are selling points for New York State Thruway Authority officials as they plan for Thursday’s competitive $547 million sale of Series O general revenue bonds. S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service rate the bonds A and A1, respectively, both with stable outlooks. The authority intends to use proceeds

S&P Global Ratings has singled out states’ underfunding of retiree medical benefits as a key credit risk for states. States continued to sharply underfund their OPEB plans and unfunded liabilities ticked upward in fiscal 2020, S&P analysts reported in their annual survey published Monday. During the economic expansion preceding the pandemic, few states pursued and