SIFMA : News on the capital markets, securities and financial industry

Washington Roundup

Supercommittee's failure to reach deal preserves muni tax status
The inability of the congressional deficit-reduction committee to reach an agreement is expected to trigger automatic cuts, but it could allow tax breaks for municipal bonds to continue. "We will continue to watch this process to ensure that our members and the many state and local governments that benefit from lower financing costs are not harmed by an unprecedented change in tax policy," said Kenneth E. Bentsen Jr., SIFMA's executive vice president for public policy. Bloomberg(11/21)

Fed to launch Stress Test III of banking sector
The Federal Reserve is about to implement Stress Test III, which requires banks to test their balance sheets against specified scenarios. The results will be due early next year. Financial Times (tiered subscription model)(11/21)

CFTC expands enforcement efforts as it probes MF Global
David Meister, enforcement chief at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said the agency is establishing specialized enforcement divisions to uncover financial wrongdoing. The move comes as the CFTC investigates the collapse of MF Global. Meister also stressed that the CFTC takes segregation of client accounts "very seriously." The New York Times (tiered subscription model)/DealBook blog(11/21), Bloomberg Businessweek(11/21)