Bankruptcy Blogs

Mutual fund giant Franklin Templeton Investments is appealing a judge’s decision to allow the city of Stockton, Calif., to exit bankruptcy under a plan that pays Franklin-managed funds a fraction of the $37 million owed them but makes full payments for the city’s pensions. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review story in The Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street Journal

Banks and other financial-services companies will increase spending on cybersecurity by $2 billion over the next two years, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study. Citigroup, for example, now spends about $300 million yearly on cybersecurity, an anonymous source told the Journal. Wells Fargo spends about $250 million per year. JPMorgan Chase now spends about $250 million, but that could double over the next years, CEO Jamie Dimon has said. JPMorgan has about 1,000 workers...

“New Jersey champagne” might sound like a sarcastic joke, but it’s really a thing, and the winery that invented it filed for Chapter 11 Thursday.

Renault Winery Inc. became so prominent among New Jerseyans for its champagne and other wines, in fact, that it earned Egg Harbor City, N.J. the unlikely nickname of “Wine City,” despite a very un-Napa like location 20 miles from Atlantic City.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Nonbank acquisitions require a certain level of expertise, John Allison writes in his new book. In this excerpt, he discusses how BB&T views the insurance business and why he stuck with subprime auto finance when others bailed. Part 4 of 5.