| Bonds Online |
 |
|
| 5/10/2013Market Performance |
| Municipal Bonds |
|---|
|
S&P National Bond Index
|
3.00% |
|
|
S&P California Bond Index
|
2.96% |
|
|
S&P New York Bond Index
|
3.13% |
|
|
S&P National 0-5 Year Municipal Bond Index
|
0.70% |
|
|
| S&P/BGCantor US Treasury Bond |
400.09 |
|
| More |
|
| Income Equities: |
|---|
| Preferred Stocks |
|---|
|
S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index
|
848.03 |
|
|
S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (CAD)
|
636.26 |
|
|
S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR)
|
1,701.05 |
|
|
S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR) (CAD)
|
1,276.26 |
|
|
| REITs |
|---|
|
S&P REIT Index
|
174.07 |
|
|
S&P REIT Index (TR)
|
425.30 |
|
|
| MLPs |
|---|
|
S&P MLP Index
|
2,469.58 |
|
|
S&P MLP Index (TR)
|
5,428.50 |
|
|
See Data
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
SEC to Muni Market: Tell Us What You Think |
The Bond Buyer - March 21, 2011 - By Joan Quigley
WASHINGTON — Securities and Exchange Commission officials are urging market participants to provide their views about the muni industry and how it can be improved, after the SEC was forced by budget cuts to suspend a series of field hearings that were to be held around the country.
The ongoing commission-wide review of the municipal market is expected to result in a report that may recommend legislation, rulemaking, and changes in industry practices.
“We’re trying to cobble together a plan so that we can keep moving,” SEC commissioner Elisse Walter said in a recent interview.
Last year, Walter presided over two field hearings in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., the first in a series of nationwide panels designed to examine the municipal securities market and provide input for the staff report.
However, the remaining muni-field hearings that were slated to be held in Birmingham, Ala., Tallahassee, Fla., Chicago, and Austin have been shelved due to budgetary constraints.
“It’s a disappointment,” said Robert Doty, president of American Governmental Financial Services in Sacramento. “I think it would be beneficial to have the hearings and gather the information.”
For months, the SEC has operated amid uncertainty over the budget for its current fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1.
Earlier this month, chairman Mary Schapiro testified before a securities panel of the Senate Banking Committee in support of President Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget, which requests $1.43 billion for the commission.
A fiscal 2011 continuing resolution proposed by House Republicans would provide the SEC with only $1.095 billion, a 2% reduction from its fiscal 2010 budget of $1.12 billion.
Last week, in testimony before the House Appropriations subcommittee on financial services, Schapiro said the SEC’s 2012 budget request is designed to help the agency hire new staff, implement requirements imposed by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and invest in information technology.
Schapiro has also told Congress the agency needs to hire close to 500 staffers to implement Dodd-Frank, including 35 new hires to focus on municipal securities and muni-adviser registration exams.
Even before Dodd-Frank, Walter had begun the review of the muni market, with the goal of improving its disclosure, among other things.
Though the hearings have been halted, Walter is pressing forward from the SEC’s Washington headquarters to continue the review, working with an agency-wide muni team whose members hail from several divisions, including enforcement, the chief accountant’s office, and the office of compliance, inspections and examinations.
The core group consists of Kayla Gillan, deputy chief of staff to Schapiro; Martha Mahan Haines, chief of the municipal securities office; Amy Starr; chief of the office of capital market trends; and Alicia Goldin, special counsel in the division of trading and markets.
Walter and her staff are also culling information from market participants through conversations, meetings, and letters. The staff is even trying to set aside certain times to be available for teleconference calls.
The SEC’s website invites interested parties to submit comments by e-mail to: munifieldhearings@sec.gov.
Specifically, the SEC is seeking input on such topics as disclosure, derivatives, credit ratings, bond insurance, Build America Bonds, investor experience, municipal advisers, pricing and quotation issues, public pensions, sales practices, self regulation and small issuers.
But without the hearings — where witnesses testified on panels organized around specific issues — the commission’s fact-gathering process has been hampered.
Since last September, when the SEC held its first field hearing, fewer than two dozen muni comment letters have trickled into the commission, according to its website. The majority were filed on or around the hearings.
For the complete article.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Partner Market Place |
|
|
|
| Stuff to look at |
Yield and Income Newsletter: A must have for income investors. subscribe NOW
S&P Commentary and Newsletters: S&P
|
|
| BondsOnline Advisor |
Income Security Recommendation January 2013 Issue.
Keep up with monthly, in-depth coverage of fixed income market strategies, commentary, and insights as seen by our sources. Sign up for the free BondsOnline Advisor now!
Unsubscribe here [+] |
|
|
|
|
