Senate Confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court​​​

The Senate today confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman to be elevated to the pinnacle of the judicial branch, the New York Times reported. Overcoming a concerted effort by conservative Republicans to derail her nomination, Judge Jackson was confirmed on a 53-47 vote, with three Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in backing her. The vote put her in line to replace Justice Stephen G. Breyer when he retires at the end of the court’s session this summer. Three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah — crossed party lines to support Judge Jackson.

Jobless Claims Fall to 166,000, Lowest Level Since 1968​​​

New weekly claims for unemployment insurance fell to the lowest level since 1968 at the end of March, according to data released today by the Labor Department, The Hill reported. In the week ending April 2, the seasonally adjusted total of new claims for jobless benefits fell to 166,000, a decline of 5,000 from the previous week. Seasonally adjusted weekly jobless claims have fallen to the lowest level since the week ending Nov. 30, 1968, when 162,000 Americans filed to start a new cycle of unemployment insurance. The Labor Department also revised the previous week’s seasonally adjusted total of jobless claims down by 31,000 to 171,000 from an initially reported level of 202,000. The size of the revision may be due in part to new seasonal adjustments used by the Labor Department this week to better account for the effects of the pandemic. Without seasonal adjustments, weekly jobless claims fell 3,674 to a total of 193,137, a decline of 1.9 percent from the previous week.

"40 Years of ABI and Insolvency" Session Will Kick Off ABI's Annual Spring Meeting

As ABI marks its 40th anniversary throughout the year, the first session of the Annual Spring Meeting will feature industry experts from the past four decades taking attendees on a walk down insolvency memory lane. The session, sponsored by Reid Collins & Tsai LLP, will feature Jack Butler of Birch Lake Holdings, LP (Chicago), Prof. David A. Skeel of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), Clifford J. White, former director of the Executive Office of the U.S. Trustee (Washington, D.C.), and Deborah D. Williamson of Dykema Gossett PLLC (San Antonio). Not registered? Click here!

SEC Curbs on Fading SPAC Boom Have Wall Street Rethinking Role​​​

Even before U.S. regulators announced a crackdown on blank-check companies, the market for the once-hot acquisition vehicles was slowing down. Now, with some Wall Street banks hitting pause on underwriting those listings while they digest the potential rule changes, it could come to almost a complete standstill, Bloomberg reported. Just 37 special-purpose acquisition companies have filed for a U.S. listing since the start of the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, compared with 451 filings during the same period in 2021. Even if all of them make it through to an initial public offering, they’ll raise just $5.5 billion in total — a fraction of the $93 billion raised by last year’s same cohort. The Securities and Exchange Commission last week said it would consider removing clauses that protect an SPAC’s bankers and other advisers if estimates about the future performance of a blank-check company don’t pan out, making them potentially liable for matters long after the IPO closes. It’s a change that’s aimed at discouraging companies from providing overly ambitious projections, and would bring the SPAC listing process closer to that of a traditional IPO. It’s also the culmination of months of warnings from SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who’s repeatedly raised concerns about the blank-check firms, which list on public stock exchanges to raise money so they can buy other companies.

CFPB Finds Payday Borrowers Continue to Pay Significant Rollover Fees Despite State-Level Protections and Payment Plans​​​

A report published yesterday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) shows that few payday loan borrowers are benefiting from no-cost extended payment plans, which are required to be offered to borrowers in the majority of states that do not prohibit payday lending. Instead of using the payment plans, borrowers continue to pay for costly loan rollovers. While no-cost extended payment plans are meant to help borrowers exit the cycle of rollovers and fees, the payday business model continues to depend on high rollover rates and fees. “Our research suggests that state laws that require payday lenders to offer no-cost extended repayment plans are not working as intended,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “Payday lenders have a powerful incentive to protect their revenue by steering borrowers into costly re-borrowing.” Every year, more than 12 million borrowers take out payday loans in the 26 states where payday lending is not prohibited. Sixteen of those states require payday lenders to offer no-cost extended payment plans. The report found substantial differences among the 16 states that require lenders to offer no-cost payment options:

- State no-cost extended payment plans vary substantially.

- Usage rates for extended no-cost extended payment plans are low in all states.

- The pandemic has affected payday loan volumes, but not no-cost extended payment plan usage.

Yellen Calls for Crypto Regulation to Reduce Risks, Fraud​​​

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says more government regulation is needed to police the proliferation of cryptocurrency and other digital assets and to ward off fraudulent and illicit transactions, the Associated Press reported. In practice, one result would be that users would get documentation of their crypto dealings for use in filing their taxes. “Taxpayers should receive the same type of tax reporting on digital asset transactions that they receive for transactions in stocks and bonds, so that they have the information they need to report their income to the IRS,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for delivery today at American University. The administration's action follows several high-profile examples of alleged cryptocurrency laundering and fraud this year. In February, the Justice Department announced its largest-ever financial seizure — more than $3.6 billion — and the arrests of a couple accused of conspiring to launder billions of dollars in cryptocurrency stolen from a 2016 hack of a virtual currency exchange. And in March, federal regulators accused two siblings of defrauding thousands of investors out of $124 million in unregistered securities offerings involving a digital token. “To the extent there are gaps, we will make policy recommendations, including assessment of potential regulatory actions and legislative changes,” Yellen said in her remarks.

Official Bankruptcy Forms Revised to Reflect April 1 Dollar-Amount Adjustments Now in Effect​​​

Various dollar amounts in the Bankruptcy Code and related statutory provisions have been increased for cases filed on or after April 1, according to a recent blog post by Robert Eisenbach of Cooley LLP. Per notice in the Federal Register, Bankruptcy Code § 104 provides a mechanism for an automatic three-year adjustment of dollar amounts in certain sections of titles 11 and 28. The next such adjustment will occur on April 1, 2022, when the dollar amounts in effect under §§ 101(3), 101(18), 101(19A), 101(51D), 109(e), 303(b), 507(a), 522(d), 522(f)(3), 522(f)(4), 522(n), 522(p), 522(q), 523(a)(2)(C), 541(b), 547(c)(9), 707(b), 1322(d), 1325(b) and 1326(b)(3) of title 11, and § 1409(b) of title 28, are set to increase. This adjustment does not apply with respect to cases commenced before April 1, 2022. Click here for the full notice and chart with the adjustments.

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