The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation board shocked the municipal bond market on Tuesday with a proposal that would switch out CUSIP numbers with Financial Instrument Global Identifiers, a marker based on standards developed by Bloomberg.  “It was an opaque process, but we did hear of efforts behind closed doors to expand the scope of FDTA to include

Williams College, the liberal arts school sprawled across 450 acres of the Berkshire highlands in Massachusetts, is out to show municipal bond investors the greater value of some higher education debt. The alma mater of former President James Garfield and current U.S. Rugby Olympian Kristi Kirshe plans to sell $108 million of bonds next week

With the launch of several muni exchange-traded funds in recent weeks, there are now just over 100 muni ETFs in the space as firms ramp up their offerings to fill the gap in the marketplace and address the growing demand from clients. “There’s definitely a bit of an arms race out there,” said Brendan McCarthy,

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board announced yesterday that it has selected three new board members to four-year terms along with the new chair and vice chair that were announced last week. The new public members are Ahmed A. Abonamah, the former chief financial officer and director, Department of Finance, City of Cleveland, and Daniel L. Wiles,

Municipals were firmer Thursday as muni mutual funds saw inflows top $1 billion and issuers were paid $26 billion of principal. U.S. Treasuries rallied and equities sold off. Muni yields were bumped two to eight basis points, depending on the scale, while UST yields fell up to 13 basis points on the short end. The

New York City’s five pensions beat investment targets in the last fiscal year, propelled by a record-breaking U.S. stock market. The city’s pensions funds for police officers, fire fighters, teachers, civil employees and school personnel, with a combined $274 billion in assets, returned 10% in the year through June, beating their 7% target, according to

Municipals were steady, underperforming U.S. Treasuries after the Federal Reserve held rates, as expected. Equities ended up. Wednesday was about setting market participants up for a policy change in September, said Jeff MacDonald, executive vice president and head of fixed-income strategies at Fiduciary Trust International. The muni yield curve has “remained stubbornly inverted” throughout most

Fitch Ratings upgraded Chicago and Cook County ahead of the city’s planned sale of $643 million general obligation bonds and the county’s $168.2 million of sales tax revenue bonds. Chicago’s issuer default and GO debt rating were bumped to A-minus from BBB-plus and the city’s sales tax securitization bonds were raised to AAA from AA-plus

Municipals were little changed Tuesday as U.S. Treasuries were firmer and equities were mixed toward the end of the session. Muni yields remain near levels seen at the start of summer last year, said Tom Kozlik, managing director and head of public policy and municipal strategy at HilltopSecurities. Yields may move lower after the Federal