 | | Featured Premium Content | | | | | ABI Paskay Materials: Student Loans
A panel at the 2025 Alexander L. Paskay Memorial Bankruptcy Seminar explains the Department of Education/Department of Justice Guidance and Attestation process, and discusses the Brunner test and the types of evidence that might be useful to support the statements in an Attestation. READ MORE | | | | | SPONSORED CONTENTPrivate Credit and BSLs: Friends or Foes?With private credit and broadly syndicated loans (BSLs) competing for dominance, the lending landscape is in flux. But can these markets ultimately work hand in hand? SRS Acquiom, in partnership with Debtwire, surveyed 200 senior executives from alternative asset management firms across Europe and the U.S. to uncover the true dynamics of these two critical markets. Download the Report | | |  | | Editor's Picks | | | | | ‘Joker’ and ‘The Matrix’ Producer Village Roadshow Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, the renowned film producer and financier that has backed “The Matrix,” “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Joker” and “The Lego Movie” franchises, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S., Variety reported. The company filed for chapter 11 in Delaware on Monday, with $223.8 million in asset-backed secured notes and $163.1 million of senior secured debt, according to court documents. The news comes amid a long-drawn out and expensive legal battle with its long-standing partner Warner Bros. over “The Matrix Resurrections,” a 2021 sequel to the sci-fi series. Village Roadshow had sued for break of contract after WB released the feature on Max the same day as theaters. READ MORE | | US-EU Tariff Clash Imperils $9.5 trillion of Business, American Chamber Warns
The U.S.-European tariff conflict is jeopardising transatlantic business worth $9.5 trillion annually, the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU warned on Monday, Reuters reported. AmCham EU, whose more than 160 members include Apple (AAPL), ExxonMobil and Visa (V), showed in its annual Transatlantic Economy report a deepening relationship hitting records in 2024, such as goods and services trade of $2 trillion. In the past week, Washington has imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, the EU has set out plans for retaliation and President Donald Trump has threatened 200% tariffs on EU wine and spirits. READ MORE | | Junk Loan Deals Are Now Getting Pulled on Both Sides of Atlantic
Companies in both Europe and the US are shelving plans to tap the riskiest corner of the loan market after U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade wars triggered economic uncertainty, Bloomberg News reported. UK production company All3Media and French insurance broker April Group last week withdrew proposals to reprice existing leveraged loans in Europe, according to people familiar with the matter. Crop-protection company Rovensa pulled a planned €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) loan refinancing and extension. The withdrawn deals are the first signs of souring sentiment among Europe’s leveraged loan market this year, and follow a spate of pulled transactions in the U.S. as tariffs undermine a previously insatiable demand for credit. READ MORE
MORE NEWS BELOW | | |  | | Upcoming Events | | | | | Behind the Bench: Preparations and Suggestions to Solve the Pro Se PuzzleABI/NCBJ Webinar
April 1 | | ABI International Latin America Symposium Charleston Santa Teresa Cartagena
May 12-14 | Cartagena, Colombia | | | | |  | | Daily Roundup | | | | | Southern California Cities Top Credit Card Debt List in New Study
Several Southern California cities have the most credit card debt per household in the U.S., a new WalletHub study found, the Los Angeles Times reported. Santa Clarita ranked first out of 181 U.S. cities, with a household average of about $22,753 in credit card debt, and a total of about $1.7 billion in debt for its 228,000 residents, according to data taken from the U.S. Census Bureau and TransUnion, WalletHub said. Chula Vista was second, with an average of $20,567 in credit card debt per household, and a total of $1.8 billion among its 275,000 residents. READ MORE | | U.S. Business Inventories Increase in January
U.S. business inventories rebounded in January as declining sales boosted stocks at wholesalers, which could see inventories contributing to economic growth in the first quarter, Reuters reported. Inventories increased 0.3% after declining 0.2% in December, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said on Monday. READ MORE | | SEC May Scrap Biden-era Crypto Asset Custody Proposal, Acting Chief Says
Wall Street's top regulator is considering changing or scrapping regulations proposed under the prior administration that would require investment advisors keeping custody of cryptocurrencies and other assets to meet stricter standards, the agency's interim chief said on Monday, Reuters reported. Mark Uyeda, acting chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, also said the agency was developing possible changes to a recent rule that requires mutual and exchange-traded funds to report portfolio holdings on a monthly rather than a quarterly basis. READ MORE | | Trump Administration Questions Law Firms Over DEI Employment Practices
President Trump’s acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday sent letters to 20 law firms requesting information about their diversity, equity and inclusion-related employment practices, the latest Trump administration assault on private law firms, the New York Times reported. In letters to prominent firms, including Perkins Coie, Latham & Watkins, Kirkland & Ellis and Sidley Austin, the commission, a federal agency responsible for protecting employees from discrimination, said it was concerned that some of the firms’ employment practices might violate civil rights laws. The agency suggested in the letters that the firms, in trying to recruit more people of color, could have discriminated against white candidates. READ MORE | | | | |
