The Capital Markets Subcommittee is holding a hearing March 7 on the recommendations of the SIPC Modernization Task Force. The Task Force presented a number of incremental recommendations, but did not deal with the dramatic increase in SIPC claims and assessments, only a portion of which is due to the financial crisis. The BDA urged…
Author: Bond Dealers of America
SEC's Gallagher Speaks Up On Volcker.
In remarks at the Institute of International Bankers yesterday in Washington, D.C., Dan Gallagher, a Republican commissioner at the SEC, expressed concern over the Volcker Rule. According to a Reuters article, in reference to the large number of comments received, Gallagher said, “These comments provide powerful evidence that the benefits the proposed rule was designed…
BDA Fixed Income Regulatory Update
The Fixed Income Regulatory Update covers recent activity at the SEC, MSRB and FINRA, as well as a practice reminder. The Update is available here.
SEC Approves GASB Support Fee.
The SEC approved FINRA’s proposal to impose a GASB support fee on broker-dealers in the municipal market. That proposal was finalized on February 23 and can be found here. The BDA submitted comments strongly objecting to continuing the practice of saddling broker-dealers with costs that should be imposed more broadly, or in some cases, not…
BDA Summary of President's 2013 Budget
Most of the proposals have been seen before, including a tax on municipal bond interest for upper income taxpayers and the reinstatement of BABs. A summary of the proposals is available here.
BDA Submits Volcker Comments
The Volcker Rule was enacted in Dodd-Frank and prohibits bank and bank affiliates from engaging in proprietary trading, but includes a series of exceptions from the rule. The proposed rule would, however, have construed the municipal bond exception very narrowly and effectively only exempted general obligation bonds. The Rule also exempts market-making and underwriting activities,…
BDA Submits Comments to the SEC on GASB Support Fee.
Today, the BDA submitted comments to the SEC in connection with FINRA’s proposed rule change to implement an accounting support fee to fund the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (the “FINRA proposal”). View BDA’s comments here.
BDA Submits Comment Letter to the SEC on MSRB Rule G-17.
Today, the BDA submitted a comment letter on G-17, underwriter disclosures to issuers. The BDA has previously provided comments on the Notice and we reiterate those comments, but also want to continue to encourage the SEC to finalize the definition of “municipal advisor” and regulate independent municipal advisors. See today’s comment letter here. For the…
GAO issues Report on Municipal Securities: Overview of Market Structure, Pricing, and Regulation.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office completed a study regarding municipal securities disclosure as mandated by Section 976 of the Dodd-Frank Act. The study focused specifically on ways to identify and weigh options for improving municipal securities disclosure and its regulation. Some of the highlights are below: GAO analysis of trade data showed that institutional investors…
BDA Submits a Statement For The Record Before a Joint Hearing examining the Volcker Rule.
By way of background, the market in fixed-income securities is not like the equity markets or the market in Treasury obligations. In such a market, broker-dealers play an important role by being familiar with the issuers and their credit, by selling bonds from their inventories to investors and by purchasing bonds from investors to hold…