Today, BDA submitted a comment letter to the Federal Reserve in response to its proposed rule to allow investment grade, general obligation U.S. state and municipal bonds to be counted as High Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA) under the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR), a new bank liquidity rule. The proposed rule would include GO municipal securities as…
Author: Bond Dealers of America
BDA Submits Comment Letter to Labor Department on Fiduciary Duty Proposal
Today, BDA submitted a comment letter to the Labor Department (DOL) regarding its request for comment on a proposal to expand the definition of ‘fiduciary’ under Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). As proposed, the expansion would significantly limit the ability of dealers to provide investment advice and recommendations to retirement investors. BDA’s letter focuses on…
Dan Leland of Southwest Securities Participates in Congressional Liquidity Roundtable
Yesterday, Dan Leland of Southwest Securities participated–as the sole dealer representative–in a fixed income liquidity roundtable hosted by U.S. Representative Randy Neugebauer, Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. Dan was joined by SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher and representatives of BlackRock, JP Morgan Regulatory Affairs, and GE. The roundtable…
BDA Submits Comment Letter on Proposed Rule G-42 to Establish Core Standards of Conduct for MAs
Proposed Rule G-42 would establish core standards of conduct for municipal advisors, provide guidance on the obligations and prohibitions that accompany their federal fiduciary duty to state and local governments, and clarify their duties of care and fair dealing to all clients. BDA’s letter focuses on the following issues: Timing of disclosure of conflicts of interest Principal transactions Documentation…
BDA Submits Comment Letter on Proposed Rule G-42
BDA’s letter focuses on the following issues: Timing of disclosure of conflicts of interest Principal transactions Documentation of recommendations Reference to Rule G-23 Reference to bank loans The letter is available here. The BDA has also submitted two previous comments letters to the MSRB on this topic, available below. View BDA’s August 25, 2014 comment…
BDA Supports Rep. Tom Reed’s Bank-Qualified Bond Legislation
In his press release, Reed featured a quote from the BDA supporting his legislation: “The Bond Dealers of America organization supports this legislation and we hope to see it move forward this year. Bank-qualified bonds are a cost-effective method of financing for local governments and financing authorities, incentivizing community banks to invest in tax-exempt bonds…
BDA Submits Comment Letter to IRS on Issue Price to Inform 2015-16 IRS Priority Guidance
BDA submitted a comment letter to IRS in response to its request for comment on the 2015-2016 IRS Priority Guidance Plan. The purpose of BDA’s letter is to reaffirm BDA’s concerns with IRS’s proposed rule changes related to issue price if IRS choses to move forward on the proposed rule changes in 2015-16. The letter reaffirms BDA’s previously…
BDA Submits Comment Letter to MSRB Re: Approval to Enhance Post-Trade Data Available on EMMA
Amendments to the MSRB’s Real-Time Transaction Reporting System (RTRS) would require dealers to indicate trades executed on an alternative trading system and trades involving non-transaction based compensation arrangements, among other changes. You can find our final letter here. The BDA’s letter includes discussion on the following: Support for increased transparency Concern regarding additional associated reporting costs…
BDA Submits Tax Reform Recommendations to Senate Finance Committee
According to the Committee’s press release, “Each of the five bipartisan working groups is currently working to produce findings on current tax policy and legislative recommendations within its area, with the goal of having recommendations from each of the five working groups completed by the end of May. Submissions from stakeholders will be reviewed by…
Board Chair Steve Genyk Discusses BDA Muni Market Priorities with The Bond Buyer
Genyk, a managing director and the head of fixed-income capital markets at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, became BDA Board Chair on March 1, 2015. Genyk discussed maintaining the tax-exemption for municipal bonds and increasing the annual issuance limit for issuers of bank-qualified bonds as two key legislative priorities the BDA is focusing on. He…