Sky Blog
On January 4, 2016, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Bankruptcy Court”) deviated from SDNY precedent and held that, despite the absence of clear Congressional intent, the avoidance powers provided for under Section …
European Economic Area (EEA) financial institutions are now subject to a new set of regulatory requirements designed to avoid taxpayers bailing out banks in the event of another banking crisis — a central component of which is that EU member …
In September 2007, Northern Rock, a British bank, sought and received liquidity support from the Bank of England because of financial difficulties resulting from the global financial crisis. As a result of mounting political pressure that Northern Rock was exploiting …
Once again, NML v. Argentina is in the spotlight. Sovereign debt’s “trial of the century”[1] has been the focal point of intense academic and policy debates, prompted a Supreme Court decision, and even triggered a contested default by Argentina …
There are few types of debt as internationally issued and traded as the debt securities issued in securitisation (in the United States, spelled securitization) transactions. European investors commonly invest in securities issued in U.S. securitisation transactions, and vice versa.
It …
The quasi collapse of the global financial system during the crisis of 2007-2009 has triggered an extensive debate about the role of large complex banks. On the one hand, banks are seen as “too complex to fail”, and researchers and …
In two previous posts,[1] I described the financial industry’s “single point of entry” (SPOE) strategy for resolving failed megabanks. The SPOE approach – which has been endorsed by the Federal Reserve Board (Fed) and other regulators – could be …
The conventional story around the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act is that it was the final blow in bringing down the Glass-Steagall Act wall that separated commercial and investment banking in 1999, increasing risky business activities by commercial banks and inadvertently precipitating the …
The global financial crisis forced regulators to realize that traditional monetary measures cannot adequately ensure financial stability. As an alternative, macroprudential policy can complement and supplement monetary policy in dealing with macroeconomic as well as stability issues. Yet the debate …
The oil sector is believed to represent approximately 13% of the Brazilian economy. Petrobras, the state-controlled, corruption stricken oil producer and by far the country’s largest corporation, is an important component of the current economic crisis. Due to mismanagement and …
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that federal prosecutors are pursuing criminal cases against bank executives for allegedly selling flawed mortgage securities. The crux of the cases? That the bankers ignored warnings they were packaging too many shaky mortgages into …
On December 10th, Columbia Law School’s Millstein Center on Global Markets and Corporate Ownership will be hosting its 10th annual Millstein Governance Forum.
For the past decade, the Forum has served as one of the premiere …
After languishing relatively disused for nearly eighty years, municipal bankruptcy is part of the new normal. The eyes of the nation were riveted on Detroit, and smaller filings across the country have proliferated in recent years. As Warren Buffett has …
The Fed proposed its long-awaited Total Loss-Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) requirements on October 30th. As expected, the Fed’s proposal came out tougher than the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) TLAC standard proposed last year,[1] including limitations on capital distributions and bonus …
Despite having become a cliché, the past is not always a foreign country. When Craig Muldrew wrote in his book, Economy of Obligation, “Increasing consumption and investment in the expansion of production meant that household debt loads grew to …
As reflected in the title of the new memoir by Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath, Bernanke clearly believes that he and other Fed policymakers demonstrated exceptional …
In my recent paper, “Private and Public Controls in the Over-the-Counter Derivatives Market, 1984-2015”, I study how private and public controls operated jointly in OTC derivatives over the period. A main conclusion is that private incentives especially shaped …
A provision of the Dodd-Frank Act popularly known as the “swaps pushout rule” prohibited FDIC-insured banks from entering into certain types of swaps contracts. Congress recently reversed this provision, so that banks can continue trading in these swaps. The reversal …