Corporate finance

Citigroup restated fourth-quarter results after writing down a portion of a loan to Revlon it now owns after losing a court battle.

The newly public digital mortgage giant is relying on a diverse set of loan channels to take on competitors in an increasingly crowded field, CEO Anthony Hsieh said in an earnings call this week.

While its net income declined annually for the second consecutive year, CEO Hugh Frater touted Fannie Mae’s resiliency in a record year for providing mortgage liquidity.

The company purchased $1.1 trillion of single-family mortgages and $83 billion of multifamily loans during 2020.

Environmental, social and governance issues topped the list of risk managers’ concerns in a Deloitte poll .

AMC and American Airlines took advantage of surprise stock-price surges to cash out shares and raise liquidity for possible debt reduction — a massive stroke of good fortune for the companies as well as their creditors.

Federal relief efforts have minimized loan losses so far, but risks remain in credit card, auto and business lending. Many borrowers will need another lifeline to stay afloat until the economy rebounds, CEO Jamie Dimon says.

Energy, retail and consumer services companies led a total of 244 filings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Georgia runoffs and resulting balance of power in Congress will help determine which bills on bankers’ wish list gain traction. But regardless, existing coronavirus relief such as the Paycheck Protection Program and a push for more economic aid will remain top of mind for lawmakers and the industry.

The buyout industry has about $3 trillion of unrealized value on its books, according to Preqin. And it’s tapping that to land loans for bolt-on deals, to refinance debt or bail out struggling companies in their portfolios.

The move comes a day after the Federal Reserve had balked at the Treasury Department's demand that it return funds meant for pandemic relief that have so far gone unused.

Executives from a half-dozen major financial institutions avoided detailed commercial lending forecasts and gave a mixed outlook on consumer credit at an industry conference. And they called on Washington to pass an aid package targeted at the most troubled business sectors as soon as it can.

The origination boom generated another profit for the company in the third quarter, when also it obtained a novel source of liquidity to support its servicing operations.

Lenders pushed back against the notion that city dwellers' pandemic-driven flight to suburbia would hurt them. They say fewer landlords have sought deferrals as vacancy rates remain low and rent collections have stabilized.

The subprime lender cited low odds that Washington will deliver further economic relief, and the fact that $1.5 billion of loans whose deferral period expired are now more than 30 days behind.

With the COVID-19 pandemic creating unprecedented challenges for small businesses, American Express has increasingly targeted its investments in that niche.

Minus various expenses including corporate, legal and servicing rights valuation, Ocwen had adjusted pretax income of $13.5 million.

Money managers bargained away legal rights in exchange for higher returns in an ultra-low interest rate environment. Now they find themselves with precious little protection for their investments just as the pandemic is causing a wave of corporate bankruptcies across the country.

After a boom in corporate distress when economies shut down to deal with the pandemic, 2020 had been expected to be the biggest bankruptcy year ever. The pace of bankruptcies was widely expected to pick up after last month, which was slower than May-July, but still the worst August on record.

The prospective payout is so alluring to investors that they’ve placed three times as many orders as bonds and loans available for sale. That allowed Delta to boost the size of the deal from an original $6.5 billion, enough for the company to rule out the need for any federal aid.