Bankruptcy Blogs

MBS Settlements--Following the Money

08/25/14

Financial crisis litigation has been going on for several years now and has been resulting in lots of piecemeal settlements. As a result, it's easy to miss the big picture.  There's actually been quite a lot of settlements covering a fair amount of money.  (Not all of it is real money, of course, but the notionals add up).  

By my counting, there have been some $94.6 billion in settlements announced or proposed to date dealing with mortgages and MBS.  

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Expect Faster SBA Loan Decisions, Contreras-Sweet Says

08/25/14

The SBA is committed to modernizing and simplifying its lending practices and, under the Obama administration, the agency has eliminated pages of regulations that were blocking the capital pipeline and hindering the growth of our economy.

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Government Assurance Aside, Marijuana Money Still Risky for Banks

08/25/14

While new government guidance is intended to make banks more willing to do business with legal marijuana dealers, in practice it creates a new set of headaches for bankers.

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Morning Scan: Yellen's Mixed Signals; Banks to Exit Muni Bonds?

08/25/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Mixed Signals: Fed Chair Janet Yellen went to Wyoming and all she brought back to Washington, D.C., was a lousy T-shirt, with no better sign whatsoever of when short-term interest rates will rise. At the Kansas City Fed's yearly economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Yellen gave a slew of mixed signals on whether she thinks the U.S. job market has improved enough yet to warrant a rise in rates, the Wall...

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The Daily Docket: GM Plaintiffs Push for Recall Lawsuit

08/25/14

One of the groups of plaintiffs trying to sue General Motors Co. over economic losses relating to the massive recall tied to faulty ignition switches is asking the bankruptcy judge to allow its lawsuit to proceed. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review story in The Wall Street Journal.

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Texas Homesteads Sold Post-Petition Take Another Hit

08/23/14
Texas bankruptcy judge Jeff Bohm has ruled that a chapter 7 debtor who sold his homestead over a year after filing bankruptcy could not keep the portion of the proceeds when he failed to reinvest them within six months.  In re Smith, 2014 Bankr. LEXIS 3344 (Bankr. S.D. Tex.
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Toward a Universal Ability to Repay Requirement

08/23/14

The latest consumer financial product to come under the regulatory microscope is subprime auto lending, which has seen a boom in the last few years.  The subprime auto market's boom underscores a real problem in consumer financial regulation: different consumer financial products have developed different substantive regulatory regimes that are not justified by differences in the products.

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Designating Life Insurers as SIFIs Creates Uneven Playing Field

08/22/14

The Financial Stability Oversight Council plans to regulate the asset management industry by targeting activities that pose systemic risk rather than the companies themselves. Regulators should take the same approach with life insurers, according to former U.S. Sen. Dirk Kempthorne.

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Forward Motions: Crumbs, James River Coal Seek Sale Approval

08/22/14
Pedestrians pass by a closed Crumbs Bake Shop Inc. store in New York on July 8.
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