Municipal bond regulator seeking comment
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ayejZe3dpOeQ&refer=home
Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — Securities regulators may impose new rules on brokers in the $330 billion auction-rate bond market where rigged bids left investors unable to sell their holdings and taxpayers with higher borrowing costs.
The U.S. municipal bond market’s main regulator, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, plans to seek comment on whether dealers should reveal the number of bidders and disclose how often auctions fail in the market for the securities, whose rates are set periodically at auctions, said Executive Director Lynnette Hotchkiss………
“The inadequacy of pricing information for floating-rate municipal bonds, such as auction rate securities” was one of the “significant shortcomings” identified by Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a Feb. 8 speech in Washington describing the regulator’s agenda this year. “A rule aimed at improving the pricing transparency for these securities,” will be forthcoming, Cox said.