Puerto Rico’s fiscal control board appointed Jose Carrion III chairman and set a two-week deadline for the commonwealth to produce a financial plan during its first meeting on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The meeting attracted about 50 demonstrators who surrounded the entrance to the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in downtown Manhattan, where the meeting was held. Congress created the seven-member fiscal control board under legislation enacted in June, which gives Puerto Rico a path to restructure its roughly $70 billion dollars in bond debt. Carrion, the newly selected chair, is an insurance executive based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and a Republican-sponsored appointee to the board, which has four candidates submitted by Republicans and three from Democrats. The board Friday requested that Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla submit a fiscal plan by Oct. 14. Also Friday, the board approved a long list of detailed information it is asking the commonwealth to produce, including weekly cash flow reports, monthly bank statements and monthly payroll reports. Read more. (Subscription required.)
For more news and analysis of Puerto Rico's debt crisis, be sure to visit ABI's "Puerto Rico in Distress" webpage.
