FDIC Top Pick Site Provides Educational Videos Accenting Municipal Securities Markets The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) provides educational and training materials on a wide variety of topics relating to banking and finance. Many of these are either...
Regulatory & Standards
Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Releases New Online Courses
New Online Courses Enhance MSRB Educational Tools Today, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) released a series on online courses about muni market activities and regulation. MuniEdPro℠ provides real-world simulations with the goal of improving the...
City Pension Funding Ratios Take a Bounce Back in 2015 for Most Cities
A Few Quick Points About City Pension Funding... by Richard A Ciccarone Based on audited results from 701 cities received to date by Merritt Research Services, City single/agent pension funding ratios showed a marked improvement in FY 2015 compared to the...
Slow Descent: How Economic and Regulatory Factors Are Changing the Regional Airline Industry and the Potential Effect on the Nation’s Airports
by Peter Stettler Over the past ten to 15 years the major domestic network airlines have relied on regional airline partners to efficiently serve smaller and mid-sized airports across the nation. Lately the advantages of the regional airline model have begun to wane...
Change Doesn’t Come Easy for Municipal Bond Audit Timing
by Richard A. Ciccarone Despite serious jawboning by market participants and a spotlight on a spate of municipal credit problems since 2010, Merritt Research Services' latest and most expansive study to date, using financial reports from 2014, continues to show that...
Six Reasons to Visit the New GASB Website
Until recently, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) website was rather intimidating to anyone without a degree in finance or accounting. That is no longer the case, thanks to an impressive “new and improved” website that offers greater functionality and...
SEC Releases Recommendations for Municipal Securities Market
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released its much-anticipated Report on the Municipal Securities Market, including recommendations to help improve its transparency. According to the SEC press release, “the report is a culmination of an extensive...