The $3.7 trillion fiscal 2012 budget proposed by President Obama Monday would permanently reinstate an expanded Build America Bond program but at a lower 28% subsidy rate.

Although the estimated costs of the Troubled Asset Relief Program have fallen markedly during the past year, the Obama administration's 2012 fiscal budget said the largest banks that benefited from the bailout should still be taxed to make up any cost to the government.

Bonaire Software Solutions announced Monday that it has signed a record number of new clients for its REVPORT revenue management and fee billing software suite.

TD Ameritrade has agreed to distribute approximately $10 million to customers who continue to hold shares of the Reserve Yield Plus Fund, a mutual fund that famously "broke the buck" on the net value of its assets in September 2008.

As a House Judiciary Committee panel meets Monday to hold a hearing on public pensions and the need for state bankruptcy protection, pension and muni bond experts are opposing a recently introduced bill that would prohibit them from issuing tax-exempt bonds unless they subject their pension plans to federal oversight and regulation.

Two deputies were named in the FDIC's Office of Complex Financial Institutions, while three staff positions were announced in the Division of Depositor and Consumer Protection.

The fund business looks like it’s back.

Rule-making body wants the SEC to make changes to prevent potential conflict of interest in municipal securities trading.

What’s a wirehouse advisor to do in this uncomfortable situation? And there’s more on the fiduciary standard.

For the second year in a row, enforcement actions set a record, jumping 21% last year, to 2,724, an increase industry representatives attributed to a persistently heightened focus on capital and safety and soundness standards in the wake of the financial crisis.

"We're no closer to an end game than we were before the report," one panelist said Thursday. "Maybe even further away."

A former broker for RBC Capital Markets is set to pay $1.7 million to RBC Capital Markets and his request for $37.8 million in compensatory damages has been denied.

House panel members on Wednesday opposed federal bailouts for municipal governments and were reluctant to provide states with bankruptcy protection, but they seemed to support requiring improved public pension fund disclosure.

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Panel ordered Citigroup to pay $6.4 million to a group of investors including investment banking executive D. Theodore Berghorst for municipal arbitrage trust fund losses.

On the eve of congressional hearings examining whether unfunded pension liabilities could trigger severe fiscal stress for state and local governments, a coalition of 10 groups representing state and ­local entities said public pensions are not in crisis and are not ­seeking federal assistance.

The top Democrat on a House panel that plans to hold a hearing Wednesday on “State and Municipal Debt: The Coming Crisis,” believes states and localities need to reform their pension systems, but is uncertain about whether states in severe fiscal distress should be permitted to file for bankruptcy protection.

While banks are likely to object to proposed regulatory restrictions on executive pay, the plan unveiled Monday to discourage risky pay structures could have gone a lot farther.

PHOENIX-Exactly who will create and enforce a new, uniform fiduciary standard for not just brokers, but investment advisers, as well?

Five days before a House panel is set to hold a hearing — “State and Municipal Debt: the Coming Crisis?” — governors are insisting that municipal securities are among the safest investments and that states are keenly aware of the need to repay their obligations.

Some lawmakers, industry insiders and consumer advocates say a legislative role is needed to ensure rules are binding and combine various state and federal policies.