Articles Tagged with Wrap-Fees

The Securities and Exchange Commission introduced a two-year plan to examine municipal advisers who assist localities and states to raise money in the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market. During this period, regulators plan to look at a significant chunk of the approximately 1,000 SEC-registered municipal advisers.

These advisers are usually small firms with one or two employees. They are not affiliated with banks. Municipal advisers are retained to time, price, and market muni-bond transactions.

The SEC has been clamping down on municipalities for not updating investors about their financial health. The regulator wants the U.S. Congress to give it more authority in the market. Right now, muni issuers are exempt from disclosure requirements that corporations have to make when selling securities. Now the agency wants to know whether municipal advisers are meeting their fiduciary duty and placing clients’ interests before their own.