Bankruptcy Blogs

New Basel Disclosure Rules Are a Win for Market Discipline

01/29/15

The Basel Committee's revisions to banks' risk disclosure requirements should help investors glean more meaningful information, thereby allowing them to impose market discipline on less creditworthy institutions.

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Morning Scan: Basel Gets Tough; OneWest's 'Risky' Email Campaign

01/29/15

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

A Patient Fed: When analyzing the Federal Reserve's statements about its timeline for raising short-term interest rates, it helps to have practiced close reading in college. The Fed said Wednesday it plans to be "patient" in adjusting monetary policy, which "means the central bank isn't likely to raise rates at its next two policy meetings," the Wall Street Journal reports. In other words, a rate hike wouldn't come until June at the...

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Sly Stone Awarded $5 Million in Royalty Fight

01/28/15
This April 1972 file photo shows rock singer Sylvester “Sly” Stone of the music group Sly and The Family Stone.
Associated Press

A Los Angeles jury aw

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A Financial Transactions Tax Hiding in Plain Sight

01/28/15

The federal courts have instated a $25 fee for transferring corporate bankruptcy claims. The decision was met with little fanfare Â-- but it could pave the way to a financial transactions tax.

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Second-Liens and the Leverage Option

01/28/15

Susan Wachter and I have a new (short!) paper up on SSRN. It's called Second-Liens and the Leverage Option, and is about the curious absence of negative pledge clauses in US home mortgages, which enabled enormous amounts of second-lien leverage (much more than anyone realized) during the housing bubble.

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The Daily Docket: Judge Approves Fontainebleau Settlement

01/28/15

A judge approved a settlement between the trustee in charge of Jeffrey Soffer’s failed Fontainebleau Las Vegas casino project and the company’s former directors and officers that will put millions in creditors’ pockets. The Wall Street Journal has the Daily Bankruptcy Review article here.

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Five Big Myths About Marketplace Lending

01/28/15

Critics of online alternative lenders argue that their underwriting models are unproven and that a financial crisis could bring the whole industry crashing down. But while Lending Club and other startups may be relatively new to the scene, they're no greenhorns.

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Morning Scan: Thieves Steal Wells Fargo's Gold; Citi to Ease Screening Criteria

01/28/15

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Gold Rush: Three armed robbers stole historic gold nuggets from Wells Fargo's corporate museum in San Francisco on Tuesday. The masked suspects crashed their sports-utility vehicle into the entrance of the museum and broke into the display case while holding a security guard at gunpoint, according to reports. At an estimated value of $10,000, the nuggets are hardly a staggering haul, but the New York Times notes they have sentimental value: "the...

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