| Bonds Online |
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| 5/10/2013Market Performance |
| Municipal Bonds |
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S&P National Bond Index
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3.00% |
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S&P California Bond Index
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2.96% |
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S&P New York Bond Index
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3.13% |
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S&P National 0-5 Year Municipal Bond Index
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0.70% |
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| S&P/BGCantor US Treasury Bond |
400.09 |
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| More |
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| Income Equities: |
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| Preferred Stocks |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index
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848.03 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (CAD)
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636.26 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR)
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1,701.05 |
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S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index (TR) (CAD)
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1,276.26 |
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| REITs |
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S&P REIT Index
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174.07 |
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S&P REIT Index (TR)
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425.30 |
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| MLPs |
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S&P MLP Index
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2,469.58 |
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S&P MLP Index (TR)
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5,428.50 |
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See Data
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Muni Reform, Mortgage Disclosure, Cuban: Compliance |
Bloomberg - Sept. 22, 2010 - By Carla Main and Ellen Rosen
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is moving to remake the regulations covering public officials and Wall Street underwriters that sell municipal bonds to investors.
SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro in May said regulators should consider requiring more timely disclosure of financial information, the adoption of mandatory accounting standards, and moves to ensure that borrowers such as real-estate developers who raise money through municipal entities provide adequate information to investors.
Schapiro appointed SEC Member Elisse B. Walter to lead hearings in San Francisco that began yesterday on improving regulations for the municipal bond market. The San Francisco hearing is the first of six planned.
Rules for the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market should afford investors protections similar to those in other U.S. securities trading, Walter said at the hearing.
Municipal securities investors “should have the same rights as investors in other types of securities to receive information that is not materially misleading and does not contain material omissions,” Walter said. The disclosures should include “financial and other material information that is not stale.”
Walter said new regulations would acknowledge the difference between the municipal and corporate securities markets. California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, who testified at yesterday’s hearings, cautioned regulators against a uniform approach, saying the rules also should reflect the differences among the many government entities that raise money in the market.
Washington Treasurer James McIntire told the panel he opposed uniform issuance rules. “It could also have a dramatic impact on the access to the market by small municipalities, and could simply cause numerous infrastructure projects to grind to a halt,” he said.
For more, click here and click here.
Compliance Policy
SEC’s Canellos Says Swaps Overhaul May Fuel Investigations
George Canellos, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Manhattan office, said new U.S. rules for clearing derivatives trades are likely to expose frauds tied to instruments including credit-default swaps.
“In history, there’s been one insider-trading case brought in the context of credit-default swaps, and it’s not because insider trading isn’t perpetrated,” Canellos said at a hedge- fund forum at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters yesterday. “It’s because of the lack of transparency.”
The Dodd-Frank Act, signed by President Barack Obama in July, requires most derivatives trades to be processed through third-party clearinghouses. Lawmakers gave regulators greater ability to monitor the market after some instruments, such as contracts insuring mortgage-backed bonds, fueled losses that led to the worst recession since the Great Depression.
The new rules will allow both investors and regulators to examine credit markets more closely, including credit-default swaps, Canellos said. In a credit-default swap, the buyer pays a fee to the seller, receiving a payout in the event of a default or another trigger.
From an enforcement perspective, “the most significant aspect of swap regulations will not be the regulations themselves, it’s going to be the greater transparency in the swaps market,” Canellos said.
A former federal prosecutor, Canellos heads the SEC’s largest office outside Washington, overseeing teams of investigators as well as examiners who perform periodic checks on investment advisers such as hedge funds.
For more, click here.
Executives to Face Court Reckoning as SEC Flexes New Power
Corporate executives are more likely to end up in court for their employees’ misconduct now that Congress has handed broader powers and more money to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, former agency officials said.
Since the start of the financial crisis, lawmakers, investors and judges have criticized the agency for giving bosses a pass while accusing companies of wrongdoing. The Dodd- Frank regulatory act lowers the bar for filing fraud lawsuits against individuals and authorizes the SEC to double its spending within five years.
Under Dodd-Frank, which was signed into law in July, the SEC can sue an individual who “recklessly” aids a fraud even if the person isn’t aware of the wrongdoing. Previously, lawyers had to show the person knowingly assisted the misconduct. The law also allows the agency to sue senior officers, directors or other people directly or indirectly accountable for the fraud.
Robert Khuzami, the SEC’s top enforcement official, is scheduled to answer for the agency’s progress today before the Senate Banking Committee after Senator Ted Kaufman, a Delaware Democrat, told him in December he was “frustrated” that regulators hadn’t been able to prosecute more executives and bankers.
The provisions “increase the likelihood of litigation” with fewer quietly settled cases, said David Kornblau, who was the SEC’s top prosecutor from 2000 to 2005.
For more, click here.
Compliance Action
Sime Darby to Take Legal Action on Project Misconduct
Sime Darby Bhd., the world’s biggest publicly traded palm oil producer, plans to start legal proceedings and lodge reports with the authorities after finding evidence of misconduct in four of its energy-related projects.
For the complete article visit Bloomberg.com
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Income Security Recommendation January 2013 Issue.
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