Law and legal issues

Bankruptcy filings hit a three-month high as investors brace for economic shifts from the U.S. election that could force more large corporations to seek protection from creditors.

Bankruptcy filings are surging due to the economic fallout of Covid-19, and many lenders are coming to the realization that their claims are almost completely worthless. Instead of recouping, say, 40 cents for every dollar owed, as has been the norm for years, unsecured creditors now face the unenviable prospect of walking away with just pennies - if that.

The agency’s consolidation of supervision and enforcement policy into one office could compromise the independence of those deciding when to investigate alleged wrongdoing by banks and others, critics of the move say.

As the pace of large U.S. company bankruptcies stabilizes, escalating tensions between distressed companies, private equity owners and creditors signal more bruising Chapter 11 filings to come.

Deals, trends and research in structured finance and asset-backed securities for the week of Sept. 18-24

The rental-car company is mulling two tentative offers for loans of about $1 billion to $1.5 billion. The proposals came from a group of Hertz’s unsecured creditors and a separate set of first-lien creditors.

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.

This year has already seen a glut of corporate failures: there were 177 U.S. bankruptcy filings year-to-date by companies with over $50 million in liabilities, according to data compiled by Bloomberg

Citigroup’s $900 million payment blunder in a normally low-profile part of the financial market dominated by a handful of banks has experts wondering if regulators will uncover a deeper problem.

The bank — which said it has been upgrading its loan operations platform after a review it undertook last year — said it mistakenly transmitted the payments after an employee didn't manually select the correct system options in its loan operation software.

Citigroup scored court orders freezing almost half of the more than $900 million it says was accidentally sent to Revlon lenders this month.

The bank has recouped part of the payment, which it blamed on a clerical error, but some of the lenders say they were owed the money in connection with an ongoing dispute.

The complaint filed by New York, California and Illinois argues that the regulation, issued in response to the 2015 Madden decision, undermines state laws intended to protect consumers.

The proposed combination of lease payments and required vehicle sales proceeds would will boost credit enhancement to around 45% by December, compared to 34% in June, according to Moody's.

The mortgage REIT's external manager responded by filing a new lawsuit against it, calling the move "baseless and retaliatory."

Under the accord, Hertz will for the rest of the year halt its effort to cancel some of the nearly 500,000 leases on the cars the company rents out to consumers. A separate Hertz entity owns the vehicles, which the company leases back under a contract that gives lenders strong collateral rights.

Moody's says anchor stores like J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus represent only a small portion of CMBS retail exposure, but their deteriorating fortunes will hasten the decline in credit quality of CMBS-held loans backed by Class "B" and "C" malls.

Mortgages taken out to fund business operations can now be modified in bankruptcy. That’s a relief to borrowers — particularly with business failures expected to increase as the pandemic drags on — but a possible headache for banks and investors that hold the loans.

The agency sought to provide certainty that most actions from the past eight years remain in effect despite the ruling that the bureau's leadership structure is unconstitutional.

Retailers and energy firms filed for bankruptcy protection in record numbers in the first half of 2020. Meanwhile, the volume of leveraged loans mandated but yet to launch is down 55% from the end of May.