Commercial lending

Money managers including Owl Rock Partners, Pretium and PGIM are racing to add workers with restructuring and bankruptcy experience as they take in record amounts of cash to buy cheap assets battered by the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Restricted from taking on distressed debt or debtor-in-possession loans, CLO managers are being left out of opportunities in coronavirus-related debt restructurings. "It's frustrating," says one manager. "We are supposed to be the bully, not the one being pushed around.”

The agencies said late Friday that they will provide information on small businesses that received $150,000 or more from the Paycheck Protection Program.

Activity in the Paycheck Protection Program has waned, but some argue that many small businesses, especially those owned by minorities, will miss out if the June 30 application deadline isn't extended.

Other challenger banks focused on personal loans have struggled since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Leveraged loans and collateralized loan obligations do not represent an "existential" threat to the global economy or to the U.S. banking system, as some recent highly charged reports have suggested.

The leveraged loan market, long favored by private equity firms to fund LBOs, has lagged. The largest buyers of the debt - vehicles known as collateralized loan obligations - are not purchasing as much as they used to as they deal with the wave of downgrades that has hit many of the companies they already hold.

A budget item establishing a new agency to protect consumers from predatory lenders has been put on hold as state officials deal with the coronavirus response and other priorities. But it could be revived in legislative talks later this summer.

The online small-business lender’s temporary halt to loan originations contributed to a breach of a minimum asset level for its Series 2019-1 collateral pool, according to Kroll.

As revenue-starved retailers fall further behind on rent payments, landlords' cash flow will be strained, and defaults on commercial real estate loans could rise.