Bankruptcy Blogs

Morning Scan: Timing of Interest-Rate Hike Questioned; Subprime Borrowing Booms

02/19/15

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Tapping the Brakes?: Hold your horses on that rate increase. According to analyses in the Financial Times and the New York Times, members of the Federal Open Market Committee appear to remain divided over when to start raising short-term interest rates, based on minutes of the committee's Jan. 27-28 meeting, released on Wednesday. (The Wall Street Journal, however, offers a somewhat-more bullish view of the minutes.) A "premature" rise in rates could...

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Altegrity Formation Meeting and Section 341 Meeting of Creditors Scheduled

02/18/15

In the Altegrity, Inc. bankruptcy proceeding, a formation meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, February 24, 2015 at 10:30 a.m. (ET) at the Doubletree Hotel, 700 N. King Street, Wilmington, DE 19801.  Click here for a copy of the Notice of Formation Meeting for Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors issued by the Office of the United States Trustee.

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Beneficial Ownership Rules Would Drag Criminals into Daylight

02/18/15

Right now, financial institutions are not required to know the identity of the living, breathing person behind accounts owned by legal entities. The beneficial ownership rules proposed by Fincen would help expose money launderers, tax evaders and criminals.

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The Daily Docket: Judge Has Concerns Over GM Bankruptcy Shield

02/18/15
Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, speaks during a discussion on “Valuing What Matters” at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York in September 2014.
European Pressphoto Ag
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Fed Should Tread Carefully in Faster Payments Plan

02/18/15

Encouraging the financial industry to explore faster payments is all well and good. Effectively directing it to do so, however, is beyond the Fed's authority.

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Morning Scan: Prosecutors Raid HSBC's Swiss Offices; BofA CEO Takes a Pay Cut

02/18/15

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Swiss Search HSBC Offices: Geneva public prosecutors launched what appeared to be a surprise raid on HSBC's Swiss offices Wednesday morning as part of a criminal probe into the bank's alleged money-laundering misdeeds. Prosecutors issued a public statement saying the search came in response to "recent public revelations" about the Swiss unit, an apparent reference to the vast files provided by whistleblower Herve Falciani to several media outlets. Among other things, theÂ...

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A 21st Century Trust Indenture Act?

02/17/15

MBS investors suffered a serious legal blow a couple of months back when the Second Circuit held that the Trust Indenture Act of 1939 doesn't apply to MBS

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Fifth Circuit Report: December-January Edition

02/17/15
The Fifth Circuit decided five bankruptcy cases over the past two months.  They include cases where the effort to recite the facts exceeded the importance of the decision, cases about the effect of summary judgments granted, denied and reversed and a footnote about Florida strip clubs.
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Tales of the GM Bankruptcy: Erroneous UCC-3 Termination Statement Results In Loss of Secured Interest on $1.5 Billion Term Loan

02/17/15

This post was originally published in the American Bar Association Young Lawyer Division Bankruptcy Committee Winter 2015 Newsletter. (c) 2015 by the American Bar Association.

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Why the 'Too Big to Fail' Problem Just Won't Die

02/17/15

Big banks have only grown larger and more complex since the financial crisis, and there is reason to doubt the efficacy of measures aimed at preventing the risk of another taxpayer bailout.

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