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A cohort of TV Azteca SAB’s creditors filed a petition to force the Mexican broadcaster into involuntary bankruptcy in the U.S., the latest twist in drawn-out debt talks, Bloomberg News reported. Holders of about $63 million of unsecured Azteca bonds filed an involuntary chapter 11 petition against the company in New York, according to court papers on Monday. The move marks the second attempt by bondholders to get traction for their claims against Azteca after it defaulted on the $400 million of notes in 2021. Negotiations have been thorny between creditors and the media company, which is controlled by Mexico’s third-richest man, Ricardo Salinas Pliego. The defaulted dollar notes, which were set to mature in 2024, were trading at 42.25 cents as of March 14, according to Trace data. Shares of the company have fallen more than 11% so far this year, even as an MSCI Inc. gauge of Mexican stocks climbs about 14%. In a Tuesday statement, Azteca reiterated its commitment to negotiations with creditors and financial discipline. The company said it would respond “responsibly” to the legal proceedings and expected the authorities to side with Azteca. Involuntary bankruptcy cases require a company to either agree to put itself under court protection or fight creditors in court. Now that a petition has been filed, a judge will be asked to decide whether Azteca stays in bankruptcy, or if the case is dismissed. The creditors are identified as Plenisfer Investments SGR SpA, Cyrus Capital Partners LP and Sandpiper Ltd. in the petition.

Carvana Co.’s debt swap proposal launched on Wednesday doesn’t have support from the group of investors who own a majority of the company’s nearly $6 billion in unsecured bonds, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The used-car retailer is asking bondholders to swap some of their holdings at a discount into an up to $1 billion new secured bond, which would have a second-priority claim on collateral including certain assets and property owned by the Tempe, Ariz-based company, such as some of its vehicles. Even if fully subscribed, the deal would only result in reducing Carvana’s debt by at most a few hundred million dollars. The bondholder group, which includes Apollo Global Management Inc., Pacific Investment Management Co. and Ares Management Corp., owns at least 70% of the outstanding bonds.

The former owner of Silicon Valley Bank, seized earlier this month by regulators, will need to wait, possibly for several months, to know if it can get back about $2 billion in cash it would need to repay bondholders and other creditors, Bloomberg News reported. SVB Financial Group won provisional court approval Tuesday to spend only a fraction of the cash the company claims federal regulators must return. What happens with the rest of the money will need to be decided in the coming months, with lawyers for bondholders owed more than $3.3 billion saying they are concerned that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will try to keep the cash. The FDIC’s decision to lock down the $2 billion “creates jeopardy” in the bankruptcy case, said Tom Lauria, a lawyer representing a large bondholder, Appaloosa LP. “It seems to be a more urgent issue than a latent one in the context of this case,” Lauria told Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn during a hearing in federal court in Manhattan. Under FDIC receivership rules it can take months for the agency to decide whether the money will be returned and then years if that decision is appealed, lawyers said during the hearing.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold the first of several hearings on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank on March 28, Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said yesterday, Reuters reported. The first hearing will hear from witnesses including Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Martin Gruenberg, Federal Reserve official Michael Barr, and Nellie Liang, an under secretary at the U.S. Treasury Department, according to a statement from Brown. "It is critical that we get to the bottom of how Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed so that we can maintain a strong banking system, protect Americans' hard-earned money, and hold those responsible accountable, including the CEOs," Brown said. The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee previously said it will hold a bipartisan hearing on the banks' collapse on March 29, with Barr and Gruenberg testifying again.

As Silicon Valley Bank deteriorated late last year and regulators began internally flagging flaws in its risk management, the lender opened up the credit spigot to one group: insiders, Bloomberg News reported. Loans to officers, directors and principal shareholders, and their related interests, more than tripled from the third quarter last year to $219 million in the final three months of 2022, according to government data. That’s a record dollar amount of loans issued to insiders, going back at least two decades. The surge in loans to high-up figures may draw scrutiny as the Federal Reserve and Congress investigate the breakdown of Silicon Valley Bank, the biggest U.S. bank collapse in more than a decade. The firm — one of three U.S. lenders to fall this month — collapsed after investors and depositors tried to pull $42 billion in a single day and it failed to raise capital to shore up its finances. The government reports don’t disclose loan recipients or their purpose, and there have been no allegations of wrongdoing connected to the insider loans.

SVB Financial Group said on Tuesday the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had taken "improper actions" to cut it off from cash held at its former subsidiary Silicon Valley Bank, which was seized by regulators to stem a national bank run, Reuters reported. SVB Financial made the accusations in court filings ahead of its first bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday afternoon in Manhattan. It filed for chapter 11 protection about a week after California banking regulators on March 10 closed Silicon Valley Bank in the largest U.S. bank failure since the 2008 financial crisis. The collapse this month of the Santa Clara, California-based bank and Signature Bank, another U.S. midsized lender, prompted a rout in banking stocks as investors worried about other ticking bombs in the banking system and led to UBS Group AG's takeover of 167-year-old Credit Suisse Group AG to avert a wider crisis. SVB Financial is exploring options, including a potential bankruptcy sale, for its venture capital and investment banking units, which were not included in the FDIC takeover of Silicon Valley Bank, while continuing to operate its businesses, it said on Monday.

FTX has attracted bidders including Miami International Securities Exchange for its crypto-derivatives platform, LedgerX, one of the few solvent pieces of Sam Bankman-Fried’s former empire, Bloomberg News reported. The exchange, known as MIAX and owned by Miami International Holdings Inc., made an offer for LedgerX, which is being sold in FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Other bidders include Kalshi Inc., the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. The size of the bids couldn’t immediately be learned. LedgerX would give MIAX a registered platform to expand its presence in the crypto industry. MIAX already operates a clearinghouse it got as part of its 2020 acquisition of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, but LedgerX technology would give it a window into the crypto industry. Kalshi, an exchange dedicated to trading on future events, became federally regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2020. It received $30 million in 2021 from Henry Kravis and other investors, including Sequoia Capital and Charles Schwab. It uses LedgerX as its clearinghouse, making any acquisition a natural fit for the company. Preliminary non-binding bids were due Jan. 25, and an auction is set for April 4. Talks are ongoing, and bids could change depending on the outcome of the negotiations, the people said.

Celsius custody account holders can receive 72.5% of the cryptocurrency in their custody accounts after Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn approved a settlement in the defunct crypto lender's bankruptcy case, TheBlock.co reported. Judge Glenn gave the green light to a settlement between the Celsius debtors, the unsecured creditors committee and an ad hoc group of custodial account holders during a hearing on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Individual custody account holders must opt into the settlement. In turn, the Celsius debtors will agree to settle all causes of action against custody account holders with respect to their custody assets, according to the terms of the deal. "Because custody holders have the right to opt in, nobody is being forced to accept this settlement. I think that’s quite important here,” Judge Glenn said.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Monday decided to break up Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and hold two separate auctions for its traditional deposits unit and its private bank after failing to find a buyer for the failed lender last week, Reuters reported. It will seek bids for Silicon Valley Private Bank until March 22 and for the bridge bank until March 24. The private bank, which is housed within SVB's retail operations, caters to high net-worth individuals. Bank and non-bank financial firms will be allowed to bid on the asset portfolios, the regulator said. First Citizens BancShares Inc, one of the biggest buyers of failed U.S. lenders, has submitted a bid for all of Silicon Valley Bank, one source with knowledge of the matter said. If the FDIC decides to receive bids for parts of SVB, First Citizens also expects to bid. Bloomberg reported earlier on their interest on SVB.

Shares of First Republic Bank fell another 47% Monday as investors remain uneasy about the bank's financial condition even after a group of the nation's largest financial institutions teamed up on a $30 billion rescue package, Reuters reported. Trading in First Republic shares was halted numerous times due to the volatility. The shares have dropped around 88% in the past two weeks. First Republic Bank received a $30 billion rescue package from 11 of the biggest U.S. banks last week in an effort to prevent its collapse. Over the weekend, the bank's credit rating was downgraded by S&P Global Ratings, which said that the rescue package should ease near-term liquidity pressures, but it “may not solve the substantial business, liquidity, funding, and profitability challenges” that it believes the San Francisco-based bank is now likely facing. Volume surpassed 184 million shares, compared with the daily average of less than 14 million shares. Shares closed down at $12.18, after touching an all-time low of $11.52 during intraday trading.