Sky Blog
In the Great Recession’s morality play, unscrupulous financiers on the inside of the mortgage industry exploited ordinary folk on the outside. Predatory lenders pushed unsuspecting homebuyers into teaser rate mortgages that seemed affordable but were in fact ticking time bombs. …
It is an honor to speak at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s 20th Financial Markets Conference, and I am grateful to President Lockhart and the organizers for inviting me to do so.[1] This evening I would like to …
Asymmetric information is an important characteristic of the securitization market, where products exhibit complex architecture and information about the underlying credit portfolio is highly opaque. In order to overcome these information asymmetries, issuers use rating agencies who act as agents …
The SEC staff issued a no-action letter recently that will allow some companies to refinance their debt using tender and exchange offers shorter than the 20 business days required in the tender offer rules. The letter extends to high yield …
Today we feature three posts on the theme of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The first two posts — from David Min and Brad Miller, respectively — question assumptions about the proper role of government and markets in home …
There was perhaps no issue of greater importance to the financial regulatory reforms of 2010 than the resolution, without taxpayer assistance, of large financial institutions. The rescue of firms such as AIG shocked the public conscience and provided the political …
In Marblegate Asset Management v. Education Management Corp. (S.D.N.Y. 2014), the Southern District of New York found that a proposed out-of-court debt restructuring to the detriment of non-consenting creditors likely violated provisions of the Trust Indenture Act of 1939 …
In recent years, top executives taking a $1 base salary (or less) has become a high-profile phenomenon across many types of organizations. The Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of some of the most recognizable corporations, both successful and distressed, have had …
With the adoption of the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) the European Union (EU) established the second crucial pillar of the European Banking Union (EBU), further promoting the financial stability and efficiency of the European …
2014 was a very active year for financial regulation in the European Union (EU). There was a push to finalise much of the outstanding primary legislation on the regulatory reform agenda in advance of the European Parliamentary elections
Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code strives to rehabilitate distressed companies and maximize creditors’ recoveries. After its enactment in 1978, the Code served those purposes well, saving companies such as Federated Department Stores, Laidlaw International, Texaco, and multiple U.S. …
Thomas Jackson famously described the role of all bankruptcy law as reducing the incentive for individual enforcement against the assets of a distressed company.[1] Although scholars have debated other aspects of Jackson’s thesis, most have continued to identify with this …
On December 17th, the FDIC issued guidance for the 2015 resolution plans of the covered insured depository institutions (CIDIs) of large bank holding companies (BHCs). The guidance (applicable to 36 CIDIs) adds welcome clarification around regulatory expectations, but also raises …
On December 8, 2014, the American Bankruptcy Institute (“ABI”) Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11 (the “Commission”) issued its Final Report and Recommendations (the “Report”). The Report proposes a number of important changes to Chapter 11.[1]
The Commission …
On October 14, 2014, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York issued a bench ruling (as later modified, the “Bench Ruling“) in the In re MPM Silicones, LLC (“Momentive“) Chapter 11 cases (Case …
In an opinion entered on November 17, 2014, Judge Stuart M. Bernstein of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York held that Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. was eligible to be a chapter 15 debtor …
On October 17, the Delaware Supreme Court held that JP Morgan (JPM) terminated its security interest in all of the collateral provided by General Motors (GM) in support of a $1.5 billion loan, despite neither party intending that result, when …
The following post comes to us from Anthony Casey, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. It is based on his recent article, “The New Corporate Web: Tailored Entity Partitions and Creditors’ Selective Enforcement,” which is …
On August 26, 2014, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Bankruptcy Court”) issued a notable decision in the chapter 11 cases of MPM Silicones, LLC and its affiliates (the “Debtors”) that could have far-reaching …
The following post comes to us from John M. Conley, William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, and Cynthia A. Williams, Osler Chair in Business Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, …