The honeymoon phase for environmental, social and governance considerations in the municipal market is beginning to wane, giving way to a more thorough and dynamic vision for how issuers and market participants can deal with the hotly-politicized concpept. ESG was building steam before the pandemic, but has now become so overly-politicized that banks, underwriters and

Employee-owned international broker-dealer Baird has launched a California Public Finance group and hired veteran banker John Baracy as a managing director to run it and be the California K-12 market lead. “It’s been a market we wanted to expand in just given the size of the California economy,” said Brian Brewer, Baird’s director of public

The direction of interest rates will have the greatest impact on the municipal bond market this year, according to a vote taken at The Bond Buyer’s 2024 National Outlook Conference in Manhattan on Thursday. Almost three quarters of respondents, 72%, said interest rates would have the most significant effect on the public finance industry in

The Internal Revenue Service has informed the Port of Port Arthur Navigation District of Jefferson County, Texas that the tax-exempt status of a 2017 $55 million bond issuance remains unresolved, months after the district initially disclosed that the IRS was casting doubt on the tax-exempt status of the bonds. The notice came via a notice on

Debt-shy Tennessee is eying private activity bonds under its newly authorized public private partnership program. Gov. Bill Lee signed the Transportation Modernization Act into law last April, supported by a $3 billion general fund infusion, making Tennessee the latest state to authorize P3s. The alternative delivery method will be used to build four toll lanes

Ex-IFS Securities trader Keith Wakefield committed securities and wire fraud when, as the broker-dealer’s head of fixed income, the Chicago resident made forbidden speculative trades and embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars over a two-year period, an Illinois federal court jury found this week. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. has brought on a pair of former UBS bankers to its public finance team under new public finance chief Elizabeth Coolidge. New York-based Kristin Stephens will head the firm’s Northeast region and Atlanta-based David Moffett will head the Southeast, the firm announced Thursday. “Kristin’s past work with issuers in developing innovative

An active primary market was the focus Wednesday with the New York City TFA pricing for institutions with small changes to yields from its Tuesday retail offering, Massachusetts upsizing its GO refunding deal and Wisconsin selling green bonds in the competitive market. Triple-A muni yield curves were mostly little changed to a basis point of

Municipal bonds are part of an Illinois city’s plan to help the local casino build a bigger venue at a new location. In its current form, Aurora’s Hollywood Casino occupies a barge tethered near downtown on the Fox River. The city wants to build a brand new casino resort about five miles away, near an

Illinois’ Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability on Thursday released its Special Pension Briefing on the state-funded retirement systems’ fiscal 2023 actuarial reports. The report said the five pension systems’ unfunded liability climbed to a market value of $142.2 billion at the end of fiscal 2023 on June 30 from $139.8 billion in 2022, with