US SEC fines 12 municipal advisors for record-keeping violations

(Reuters) -The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined on Tuesday 12 municipal advisors more than $1.3 million to settle civil charges that they failed to preserve electronic communications such as text messages.

The charges were the latest in the SEC's series of enforcement actions concerning "off channel" communications in the financial sector.

All 12 firms were charged with violating record-keeping provisions of the Securities Exchange Act and rules of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, with supervisors responsible for some of the failures, the SEC said.

"Firms that believe their practices do not comply with the securities laws are encouraged to self-report to the SEC’s Enforcement staff," Rebecca Olsen, SEC deputy chief of enforcement, said in a statement.

According to the SEC, the firms admitted that staff at multiple levels including supervisors failed to preserve communications about municipal advisory work as required by law.

The largest fines included $324,000 against Kaufman Hall & Associates, together with Ponder & Co; $250,000 against PFM Financial Advisors, and $250,000 against Specialized Public Finance.

"The SEC continues to aggressively pursue enforcement actions against its regulated entities, including municipal advisors," said Edward Fierro, a lawyer for Specialized Public Finance. "Most of these firms were selected by SEC staff to voluntarily participate in the initiative."

A PFM Financial spokesperson said the company was pleased to have resolved the matter. Mark Bini, an attorney for both Kaufman Hall and Ponder, declined to comment.

Zions Public Finance Inc, a unit of Utah's Zions Bancorporation, agreed to pay $47,000. Representatives from Zions did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and David Gregorio)