Banking

Since March, issuers have tightened their criteria for opening new accounts and closed millions of existing ones in hopes of avoiding waves of defaults.

The new regulation is intended as a workaround for banks affected by the 2015 decision that created legal uncertainty for loans sold across state lines.

Business development companies (BDCs) were trending ever healthier prior to the pandemic, but if the economy remains in the deep doldrums it may ultimately be their affiliated asset-management companies that investors should look to for assurance.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston published details on the terms for lenders and borrowers to participate in the facility intended to provide coronavirus relief funds to middle-market firms.

A New York judge last week dismissed a claim that a leveraged loan JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other Wall Street banks sold in 2014 could be considered a security and, as such, be subject to the same disclosure requirements as stock and bond offerings.

The congressional showdown over the pace of rulemaking during the pandemic is a hardening of older positions on banking policy ahead of the 2020 elections, observers said.

The economic contraction caused by the coronavirus pandemic has been worse than the Wall Street firm had modeled two months ago, its president John Waldron said Wednesday.

Forecasts about the pandemic's impact on the mortgage market have grown less dire after forbearance requests by homeowners nearly leveled off in the first half of May.

In a report issued Tuesday, the ratings agency notes that 1,287 companies as of April 28 faced prospects of potential debt and issuer downgrades, impacted by the coronavirus outbreak and a virtual shutdown of the global economy this spring.

The templates are meant to make it easier to obtain agency approval for small-dollar loan products and to accommodate mortgage servicers that want to provide online loss mitigation options.