Fixed income

Sen. Ron Wyden, who recently caused a stir in the municipal bond market by proposing a tax-reform bill that would eliminate tax-exempt bonds and replace them with tax-credit bonds, said yesterday he is open to discussing possible modifications to the legislation with critics.

Build America Bond transaction participants are debating whether they need to do more to track BAB prices to avoid running afoul of statutory premium restrictions and jeopardizing the issuer’s subsidy payments or to respond to an Internal Revenue Service compliance check.

State and Local Debt Is Prized

Municipal closed-end funds continue to surge to new peaks despite the specter of higher interest rates threatening to throw a wet blanket on all the fun.

Last week, investors did something they have not done in well more than a year: withdrew more money from municipal bond mutual funds than they put in.

State and local governments will save $12.3 billion on the $90 billion of Build America Bonds issued so far compared with traditional tax-exempt debt, the Treasury Department said in a recent report touting the success of the program.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Manhattan has refused to dismiss class action claims filed by local governments alleging that Wells Fargo & Co. and 15 other banks, broker-dealers and investment brokers conspired to rig bids and fix prices of guaranteed investment and derivatives contracts in the municipal market.

Ambac postponed the release of its 4Q and year-end earnings last week due to ongoing discussions with counterparties

Timing of Senate Action Is Unclear

Market Players Push for Changes

SIFMA and CMSA back Garrett's follow-up bill

Charles Schwab Corp. has partnered with Pacific Investment Management Co. to offer wealthy clients in or approaching retirement a managed municipal bond laddering product.

But the direct-pay subsidy rate would shrink from the current 35% of interest costs to 33% in 2011, 31% in 2012 and 30% in 2013, under a draft of a second jobs bill unveiled yesterday by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Sander Levin, D-Mich.

The top Republican tax-writer in the Senate yesterday warned colleagues that provisions in the House-passed jobs bill that offer high subsidy rates for Build America Bond-type programs would allow Wall Street banks to pocket more in underwriting fees.

Do Buyers Prefer Passive or Active?

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board is expected to file long-awaited rule changes with the Securities and Exchange Commission that would implement the final phase of its transparency system for auction-rate securities and variable-rate demand obligations.

Muni Provisions Could Cost $20 billion

But the Regions wealth management unit refuses to roll over.

House Counsel: 28% Rate Unlikely

Investors showed uncanny calm, inertia or perhaps even malaise during the recession, with a scant 1% selling out of equity funds at the height of the market volatility in October 2008, Vanguard found.