Business Notes Government

The government-securities market, a freewheeling, $200 billion-a-day bazaar in which federal notes and bonds are traded, was rocked last week by the failure of its second dealer in a month. Bevill, Bresler & Schulman Asset Management, a small New Jersey-based firm, filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 after admitting that it could not meet some $140 million in debts to its customers, including about 45 savings and loan associations. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Bevill, Bresler for fraud, charging that the firm secretly drained its customers' investments to make up for heavy trading losses. The failure comes in the wake of last month's $317 million collapse of Fort Lauderdale's E.S.M. Government Securities, which provided the spark for Ohio's savings and loan crisis.

The New Jersey failure provided more evidence for politicians who are demanding a closer federal watch on the largely unregulated government- securities market. Two House Democrats, John Dingell of Michigan and Timothy Wirth of Colorado, plan to introduce a bill this week that would bring some 200 dealers under the supervision of a panel to be called the Public Securities Rulemaking Board.