Bonds

Title: Director Public Finance — Credit StrategyFirm: Wells FargoAge: 39 Kristen Fontana always had an affinity for the policy side of public finance. After dipping her toes into public finance with an internship at an investment bank during the financial crisis, she decided to go back to school for a graduate degree. There, Kristen said,

Georgia-based Piedmont Healthcare Inc. heads into the market with a $1 billion taxable issue that folds a bridge loan used to finance its acquisition of four hospitals from for-profit HCA Healthcare into its long-term debt portfolio. Piedmont will offer the bonds as three index-eligible bullets with $300 million due in 10 years, $300 million in

Melissa Norcia was appointed the chief administrative officer for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System on Tuesday. Norcia starts September 15 and replaces Lisa Blatnick, who became CalSTRS chief operating officer in August. CalSTRS was established by law in 1913 to provide retirement benefits to California’s public school educators from prekindergarten through community college. Today,

Chicago’s finance team dug in this week on it plan to scrap $950 million of scoop-and-toss borrowing amid pushback from council members who want the city to put more federal COVID-19 pandemic relief toward social investments. Several council members pressed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s finance team to consider some limited form of debt restructuring to free

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi asked the bankruptcy judge to pause an Oversight Board suit against a law the board says would scuttle the Plan of Adjustment. Pierluisi’s lawyers filed the request with Judge Laura Taylor Swain Wednesday evening in an adversary proceeding part of the bankruptcy. The governor signed Act 7-2021, a law which

In a prolonged low-interest-rate environment, many issuers may have paid little heed to arbitrage on bond proceeds. But that could change, and municipal advisors and bond counsel are staying vigilant on their clients’ behalf. “Declining interest rates make it generally easier to manage arbitrage,” said Adam Harden, partner at Locke Lord in Texas. “If an

California received an outlook boost to positive from S&P Global Ratings as the state prepares to sell more than $2 billion of general obligation bonds. The deal will land the week of a Sept. 14 recall election targeting Gov. Gavin Newsom. But California’s surplus and budgetary changes that occurred after the 2008 economic crash will

Jennifer Fredericks joined Ice Miller LLP last month to take on the newly created role of director of business development for public finance. Fredericks left Bank of New York Mellon, where she was a vice president of business development for the corporate trust group, to take the Ice Miller position. At BNY Mellon she led

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to extend the deadline to pass the Series 54 exam two weeks to Nov. 30, 2021, from the previous date of Nov. 12. The extension comes, as promised, shortly after the agency began offering remote examinations following news that a municipal

The municipal market was little changed on Friday as a disappointing August jobs number punctuated an otherwise lackluster day of light trading activity ahead of the Labor Day holiday. Trading fell to a trickle at about $2.1 billion near the close and triple-A benchmarks were unmoved, outperforming a cheaper U.S. Treasury market which saw the

The catastrophic remnants of Hurricane Ida snuck up on Northeast states Wednesday, catching officials and the general population off-guard. But such a storm, still delivering massive amounts of rain more than 1,300 miles from its Louisiana landfall, is no outlier, one New Jersey climate official warned. “It may be a different animal, as you put

The municipal market traded sideways and activity was muted on Thursday as U.S. Treasuries were steady and equities in the black ahead of the much-anticipated employment report to be released Friday. Refinitiv Lipper reported $1.044 billion of inflows into municipal bond mutual funds for the week ending Sept. 1, down from the $1.9 billion a

Widespread Puerto Rico power outages this week are highlighting the extended age of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s infrastructure and its impact on the economy. The outages affected 33% to 37% of the authority’s customers since Monday and will continue to afflict many for a few more days, according to PREPA. Demand has been

Municipal trading dropped 25% on Wednesday after an already very slow few days in the secondary, leaving municipal benchmark yields little changed, as U.S. Treasuries also held steady and most participants began checking out for the holiday weekend. For the 25th week in a row, municipal bond mutual funds saw inflows of nearly $2 billion,

Municipal benchmark yield curves were little changed to a touch firmer Tuesday as all eyes were on the primary in which several larger competitive loans were sold and New York City Transitional Finance Authority offered nearly $1 billion to retail investor for the second day with some concessions. U.S. Treasury yields rose slightly and ratios

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board asked the Puerto Rico bankruptcy court Monday to continue to hear a suit against a local law that would scuttle the negotiated debt Plan of Adjustment. Lawyers for Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi filed a motion to stay the adversary proceeding, which is like a suit, on Aug. 25. The

Municipals were little changed to a touch weaker on Monday, underperforming a slightly better U.S. Treasury market while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rallied. The New York City Transitional Finance Authority priced $950 million of future tax-secured bonds for day one of a two-day retail order period. Nearly all categories of municipals appear poised to

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi is expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit program for the island, which along with another expansion of a federal program, will likely aid the island’s economy, experts said. The federal government will provide $612 million a year for 10 years for the expanded credit, if the local government continues to

The Puerto Rico Senate approved a hike in the island’s minimum wage Thursday. The legislation would lift the minimum to $8.50 per hour on Jan. 1, 2022, and $9.50 on July 2023. A third increase, to $10.50 per hour, was agreed for July 1, 2024, but subject to the evaluation of a newly created Minimum

Unfunded retiree health-care benefits are the most material long-term liability for about one in 10 states and local governments, Moody’s Investors Service says. Retirement liabilities other than pensions — other-post employment liabilities, or OPEB — were roughly $1.1 trillion for the 50 states and more than 7,000 cities, counties and K-12 school districts that Moody’s