Bankruptcy Blogs

Banks Should See Stress Tests as an Opportunity, Not a Chore

03/18/13

If done right, the Fed's stress tests will motivate a renaissance in enterprise risk assessment, breaking the black box and bringing needed transparency to banks' exposures.

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Basel III Will Force Small Banks Out of Mortgages

03/18/13

Capital requirements for community banks should be raised outside of the Basel III process and through a much more simplified system of risk-weighted assets.

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Direct Deposit and Social Security: Not so Nice for Those who Owe

03/18/13

Jonathan Ginsberg posted an interesting article
on the National Association of Chapter 13 trustees web site this weekend, that will be relevant to many of our readers as well.

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U.S. Policies Grow Big Banks, Shrink Small Ones

03/18/13

Three things are driving the growth of large banks: market demand, access to capital and regulatory burden created by existing and forthcoming legislation.

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Cyprus Bailout's Harsh Terms for Depositors Spark ATM Runs, Outrage

03/18/13

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Cyprus: Bailouts? Been there. Bank runs? Done that. But the European rescue package for this Mediterranean island has introduced a cruel twist: Making depositors pay. All depositors. The proposed one-time "stability levy" would not only take 9.9% out of uninsured deposits above 100,000 euros, but also 6.75% of insured deposits below that threshold, no matter how small the savings. This detail sparked panic, as Cypriots queued up at ATMs over the weekend...

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The Daily Docket: Dex One, SuperMedia Enter Bankruptcy

03/18/13

Yellow-pages companies Dex One Corp. and SuperMedia Inc. have both voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of their previously announced all-stock merger deal. Read the article in Daily Bankruptcy Review.

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Debt Collectors Serve A Purpose, Even To People Who Owe Money

03/18/13

Post image for Debt Collectors Serve A Purpose, Even To People Who Owe Money

Consumer protection lawyers like me are wrongfully trained to hate all debt collectors.

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Dancing Around the Risk Question

03/18/13

Reflecting on my last two posts – price caps, loan structure requirements, underwriting rules – discussing any of these puts the cart before the horse. We know we want to rein in risk without cutting off access to credit that is not too risky. But how much risk is too much risk when it comes to credit? 

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Cyprus as Precedent: Will There Be Bank Runs Elsewhere?

03/16/13

Anyone want to take bets on whether there will be runs on Italian, Spanish, and Portugese deposits? That's my bet. I'm not sure that we'll see small retail depositor runs, but I would predict that high dollar deposits in all of those countries will start flowing abroad very fast before any capital controls can catch up with them. And that will push up borrowing costs for those banks if they want to retain high-dollar deposits.

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