Recent Articles

SEC Issues Investor Bulletin Regarding Municipal Bonds

March 21, 2012 23:38

BY CHARLES CAREY On March 19, the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an Investor Bulletin http://www.sec.gov/investor/alerts/municipalbonds.htm to help educate individual investors about municipal bonds. While the Investor Bulletin is fairly basic and addressed primarily...

IRS Announces Closing Agreement Process for At-Risk Student Loan Bonds

March 21, 2012 22:33

The IRS has announced the procedures, and settlement cost methodology, for issuers seeking to preserve the tax-exemption of those student loan bonds that are at risk of being declared taxable due to the issuer's attempted compliance with arbitrage restrictions using a loan-swapping technique...

SEC Focuses On Municipal Underwriter Compliance With Due Diligence Obligations

March 20, 2012 13:22

BY LEN WEISER-VARON On March 19, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations released a National Examination Risk Alert http://www.sec.gov/about/offices/ocie/riskalert-muniduediligence.pdf reporting on its examinations of broker-dealers for compliance with municipal bond...

MSRB Proposes Limits on Underwriter Consents to Indenture Amendments

February 08, 2012 14:12

By LEN WEISER-VARON The MSRB has put out for comment a proposed interpretive notice http://www.msrb.org/Rules-and-Interpretations/Regulatory-Notices/2012/2012-04.aspx designed to eliminate or reduce instances in which underwriters of new bonds issued under a parity indenture or bond resolution...

Regulations Issued for Remote Participation in Meetings Subject to the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law

December 15, 2011 02:12

By JOHN R. REGIER The Massachusetts Attorney General recently promulgated regulations authorizing remote participation in meetings subject to the Open Meeting Law under certain prescribed circumstances. The Massachusetts Open Meeting Law has long required public bodies to conduct their business in...

Court Dismisses Harrisburg Chapter 9 Petition - Rules Harrisburg Not Authorized to File

November 23, 2011 20:37

BY BILL KANNEL AND ADRIENNE WALKER The bankruptcy court ruled today that the City of Harrisburg’s Chapter 9 petition filed by the Harrisburg City Council was not specifically authorized under Pennsylvania law.  After extensive briefing from the parties concerning, among other things, the...

Harrisburg City Council responds to Objections to Chapter 9 Eligibility

November 15, 2011 16:20

BY BILL KANNEL  As expected the Harrisburg City Council has filed a reply to the numerous objections to the Chapter 9 filing of Harrisburg initiated by the City Council.  The City Council’s brief (harrisburg response.pdf) appears to be the only timely filed reply to the objections...

Recent Developments Regarding Issuer Responsibility for Reviewing Initial Offering Prices of Bonds

November 09, 2011 15:40

BY JEREMY SPECTOR Following the advent of Build America Bonds (BABs) in 2009 and securities law rulemaking that has resulted in the posting of virtually instantaneous trading data on the EMMA website (msrb.emma.org) hosted by the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), the IRS has repeatedly...

Court Rules City of Harrisburg Can Pay Pre-Petition Amounts to Ordinary Course Vendors

November 03, 2011 19:49

BY BILL KANNEL The bankruptcy court in the City of Harrisburg's Chapter 9 proceeding held a hearing on Tuesday, November 1 on the Mayor’s motion for an order clarifying that the City had the ability to pay its debts in the ordinary course.  The court found that given the limitation on...

Objections Filed in Harrisburg Chapter 9 Bankruptcy

October 30, 2011 21:22

BY BILL KANNEL As expected a number of objections to the Chapter 9 bankruptcy petition filed by the Harrisburg city council were filed on Friday October 28, the deadline set by the Bankruptcy Court for such objections. As expected both the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Harrisburg...