Munis

The Senate advanced the One Big Beautiful Bill Act through a procedural vote, opening the legislation for debate followed by Monday's vote-a-rama.

The state supreme court agreed to review the ruling in favor of a group of Wall Street banks that whistleblower Edelweiss said cost the state at least $100 million.

It's the latest proposal for a type of national infrastructure financing structure in lieu of the municipal bond market.

A bill before the state legislature would create a public infrastructure bank, where municipalities could go to finance projects from affordable housing to bridges.

The muni market finances the "fabric of our nation, and now, because of Citi's exit, the cost of financing for state and local governments is going to go up," a sell-side source said.

After months of speculation, the firm confirmed it would "wind down" its municipal underwriting and market-making activities after a "broad-based review" of its muni business, according to a company memo.

U.S. regulators' swift action in March to ring-fence the banking sector after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank might have had an unintended consequence of driving cash out of bond funds by enhancing the appeal of deposits, two New York Fed researchers say.

The whistleblower who brought the case, Minnesota-based municipal advisor Johan Rosenberg, will receive $14.4 million under the deal.

With class certification now in hand, the cities that brought the lawsuit have two weeks to outline how other municipalities will be provided notice of the chance to join.

The lawsuits alleged that banks including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs — acting as remarketing agents on the securities — failed to get the best rates for issuers.

The private equity firms accused the bank of concealing key changes to a credit agreement, in part because it wanted to win future muni bond business from Brightline Holdings.

Moody's said higher funding costs, a potential decline in bank capital and growing risk in the commercial real-estate industry prompted many of the downgrades.

Texas State Bankshares has agreed to buy Estrada Hinojosa & Co., one of the nation's biggest municipal underwriting and advisory firms.

While it's still relatively early to tell how much — if at all — the muni market will be impacted, Kara South, portfolio manager at GW&K Investment Management, said downgrades of certain municipal bonds are likely to follow.

The group of banks would pay $68 million to settle the lawsuit, which originally estimated damages at $340 million.

The plaintiff that brought the case on behalf of the state says the banks inflated interest rates through a private, invitation-only VRDO index that influenced SIFMA's weekly index.

The resignation comes after the bank was placed on the state treasurer's list of fossil fuel industry boycotters.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provides billions in grants for state and local governments. The challenge now is how quickly and effectively they can spend it amid an inflation–fueled rising–rate environment.

The Swiss bank's municipal-underwriting subsidiary lost out on a bond deal after the state comptroller included the parent company on a list of firms he deems "boycott" the fossil fuels industry.

A Texas city declined to award a bond deal this week to Citigroup even though the bank submitted the most competitive bid, showing how Wall Street is still contending with a Republican-backed state law that punishes financial firms for taking on gun policies.