Bankruptcy Blogs

NCBJ Report 2016: Hot Spots in a Cold Restructuring World: Energy and Healthcare Restructuring

10/28/16
This panel examined energy and healthcare reorganizations.   The unifying theme of this panel was that industries that are highly regulated, highly leveraged and lack control over their prices are prime candidates for bankruptcy.   According to the moderator, Judge Margaret Mann, the panel hoped to make its presentation relevant to practitioners regardless of whether their typical client was a gas station or dentist as opposed to a major oil producer.
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Less Channel, More Product: the Growth Formula for Banks

10/28/16

What matters is what the customer gets, not how they get it. Investing in digital distribution yields little unless banks are delivering the products and services that customers crave.

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Banks Overemphasize Channels, Neglecting Product

10/28/16

What matters is what the customer gets, not how they get it. Investing in digital distribution yields little unless banks are delivering the products and services that customers crave.

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Morning Scan: No Update on Deutsche Negotiations; Chatbots Coming

10/28/16

Breaking News This Morning ...

UBS profits fall: Unlike other large international banks, which have mostly been reporting better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter, UBS reported its net profit dropped more than 60%. Net profit fell to 827 million Swiss francs from 2.1 billion francs in the same quarter last year. Analysts were expecting 945 million francs. Last year's figure was inflated by a large one-time tax benefit. The Swiss bank said it continued to experience...

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NCBJ Report 2016: Broken Bench Radio

10/28/16
The first plenary session of NCBJ was Broken Bench Radio, a fast-paced discussion of hot topics in the form of a radio call-in show.   It covered insights from the Caesar's Entertainment case, upcoming Supreme Court decisions, recharacterization, equitable mootness, Chapter 13 updates, the CFPB and the Husky case.  
Insights From Caesar's Entertainment
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Does Behavioral Economics Matter?

10/27/16

The New Republic (yes it still exists) has a piece about whether behavioral economics will have as much influence in a Clinton administration as it did in the Obama administration. The unspoken assumption of the piece is that behavioral economics actually had a big influence in the Obama administration. Here's the thing:  as far as I can tell, behavioral economics has been basically irrelevant in the Obama administration.

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Do the Distressed Debt Traders Know About This?

10/27/16

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 23-46:  

It shall be unlawful for any individual, corporation, or firm or other association of persons, to solicit of any creditor any claim of such creditor in order that such individual, corporation, firm or association may represent such creditor or present or vote such claim, in any bankruptcy or insolvency proceeding, or in any action or proceeding for or growing out of the appointment of a receiver, or in any matter involving an assignment for the benefit of creditors.

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Women in Banking: Qualities for Success; Equity on the Small Screen

10/27/16

A report on women in the financial services industry illuminates some of the ways gender is still a factor holding them back. One problem is unstated ideas about qualities for success, which have been decided over decades by men. It seems that gender diversity initiatives aren't helping, but a couple of headhunters have some suggestions for how banks can do better and so does Debbie Matz. "Equity" screenwriter Amy Fox talks about what she learned from women on Wall Street, and the film is set to become the basis of a new ABC television series.

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NCBJ Report 2016: The Streets of San Francisco

10/27/16
I am resuming my coverage of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges this year.   Last year the demands of work kept me off the blog.   NCBJ 2016 is taking place in San Francisco.  A few random observations.    People in San Francisco wear jackets even when it isn't cold.   There are mica specks in the sidewalk that make them glitter when the light hits them.   The Golden Gate Bridge looks incredible when it is lit up at night.
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No Hollywood Ending for Women on Wall Street

10/27/16

The last movie about female executives on Wall Street was "Working Girl" in 1983. The end of the movie left the audience feeling euphoric. But in creating the movie "Equity," we set out to explore Â-- as authentically as possible Â-- the experiences women have in this field, and the truths that we encountered in our interviews were not pretty.

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