Bankruptcy Blogs

Higher capital requirements, sluggish GDP growth and antiquated cost structures are stymying banksÂ' efforts to boost returns to investors. This will likely lead to a boom in mergers and acquisitions over the next decade, writes Richard J. Parsons.

My Consumer Finance students used to think I was wasting their time by spending a whole class session on usury laws and taking them into the nitty-gritty of their application (or non-application). I think usury is important conceptually (but for the Marquette decision and its fallout, our regulation of consumer credit would likely be very different), has a lot of neat statutory reading twists and turns, and it actually can matter for non-bank lenders.  Among other things I cover is the NY state usury statute, including its criminal provisions.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Sold: JPMorgan Chase is selling half of its $4.5 billion in holdings in its One Equity Partners private-equity unit, in part because of the requirement that banks reduce investments made with their own money, and in part because of new capital requirements. The Journal story on the sale also throws in another reason for selling the business unit, by pulling a quote from Jamie Dimon from a recent earnings conference call: "It...

A U.S. bankruptcy judge has called a temporary truce in a fight between Nortel Networks Corp.’s U.S. division and the Canadian parent company over a $1 billion settlement with bondholders.

Judge Kevin Gross pushed off until October a planned September showdown over the settlement, which has to do with how much interest is owing on some $4 billion in bond debt issued by the former Canadian technology icon.

Regulators need to provide clear standards as to what constitutes an acceptable living will, according to the American Enterprise Institute's Abby McCloskey and Paul H. Kupiec.