{"id":5269,"date":"2012-02-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/institutionalinvestorsecuritiesblog.blawgcloud.com\/2012\/02\/not_all_municipal_bond_issuers"},"modified":"2022-04-22T10:58:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T15:58:08","slug":"not-all-municipal-bond-issuers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/not-all-municipal-bond-issuers\/","title":{"rendered":"Not All Municipal Bond Issuers Are Adjusting Well to the SEC\u2019s Efforts to Make the Market More Transparent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>According to The New York Times, the Securities and Exchange Commission is attempting to make the municipal bond market less \u201copaque.\u201d One way it is doing this is by adding more disclosure requirements. For example, muni bond issuers now have to publish bond rating changes, financial statements, and other material on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board\u2019s EMMA data site in a timely manner. However, the Times reports that not all 55,000 muni bond issuers are adjusting well to this era of greater transparency.<\/p>\n<p>The newspaper cites the West Penn Allegheny Health System, which has been the target of an SEC probe for more three years after an earnings restatement in July 2008. The examination turned into a formal probe in 2009. (The multi-hospital system is one of the largest municipal bond issuers, with nearly $740 million bonds outstanding.)<\/p>\n<p>Although West Penn posted $1.6B of revenue for fiscal year 2011, during the last six months of the year, it lost $56M. The company\u2019s pension plan is underfunded by $200M. Last year, Fitch Ratings and Moody\u2019s downgraded the West Penn bond rating so that it\u2019s well in the junk category. Also, as of December 31, 2011, the system was in possession of just 58-days worth of cash. Meantime, as West Penn is awaiting the approval of a partnership with health insurer High Mark Inc., which said it would commit up to $475M over three years to support West Penn hospitals, the union has garnered the attention of the Justice Department\u2019s antitrust division. Also, the SEC has been asking for information about West Penn\u2019s financial statements. <\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/not-all-municipal-bond-issuers\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Not All Municipal Bond Issuers Are Adjusting Well to the SEC\u2019s Efforts to Make the Market More Transparent\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to The New York Times, the Securities and Exchange Commission is attempting to make the municipal bond market less \u201copaque.\u201d One way it is doing this is by adding more disclosure requirements. For example, muni bond issuers now have to publish bond rating changes, financial statements, and other material on the Municipal Securities Rulemaking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3922],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-municipal-bonds"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Not All Municipal Bond Issuers Are Adjusting Well to the SEC\u2019s Efforts to Make the Market More Transparent &#8212; Investor Lawyers Blog &#8212; February 22, 2012<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to The New York Times, the Securities and Exchange Commission is attempting to make the municipal bond market less \u201copaque.\u201d One way it is doing &#8212; February 22, 2012\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/not-all-municipal-bond-issuers\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Not All Municipal Bond Issuers Are Adjusting Well to the SEC\u2019s Efforts to Make the Market More Transparent &#8212; Investor Lawyers Blog &#8212; February 22, 2012\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"According to The New York Times, the Securities and Exchange Commission is attempting to make the municipal bond market less \u201copaque.\u201d One way it is doing &#8212; February 22, 2012\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Not All Municipal Bond Issuers Are Adjusting Well to the SEC\u2019s Efforts to Make the Market More Transparent &#8212; 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Kantas, LLP","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/not-all-municipal-bond-issuers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/not-all-municipal-bond-issuers\/"},"author":{"name":"Shepherd Smith Edwards &amp; Kantas, LLP","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e0240e0754684b69f7d6a7de1b9f1431"},"headline":"Not All Municipal Bond Issuers Are Adjusting Well to the SEC\u2019s Efforts to Make the Market More Transparent","datePublished":"2012-02-22T06:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-22T15:58:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/not-all-municipal-bond-issuers\/"},"wordCount":548,"articleSection":["Municipal Bonds"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/not-all-municipal-bond-issuers\/","url":"https:\/\/www.investorlawyers.com\/blog\/not-all-municipal-bond-issuers\/","name":"Not All Municipal Bond Issuers Are Adjusting Well to the SEC\u2019s Efforts to Make the Market More Transparent &#8212; 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