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An increasingly vocal chorus of current and former U.S. regulators says that the biggest banks still have not provided adequate plans to safely wind down in bankruptcy and may need to be restructured to reduce the risk they pose to the financial system, Bloomberg News reported today. Jim Wigand, a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. official responsible for planning for the potential failures of big banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc., said that none have yet been able to draw up bankruptcy plans that wouldn’t threaten to detonate the financial system. The plans, known as “living wills,” were a core demand of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act overhaul of financial oversight, and it gave regulators the authority to require systemically risky banks to restructure if their plans aren’t “credible.” Whether a global financial giant is able to go through an orderly bankruptcy using a living will is still “an open question,” Wigand said. The 11 largest banks filed the first draft of their living wills last year. The banks, which included Bank of America Corp., Barclays Plc and Deutsche Bank AG, are required to file new versions of their living wills on Oct. 1. Another tier of banks with smaller U.S. nonbank holdings, including Wells Fargo & Co. and HSBC Holdings Plc, must file their first plans by July 1.

Bankruptcy Judge James Peck ruled yesterday that repurchase agreements don't qualify for "customer status" in a failed brokerage business, a blow to a group of banks that had sought equal footing with customers in the liquidation of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s broker-dealer, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Judge Peck said that a "contractual obligation" by Lehman to return the securities is "no substitute" for an account statement that includes an inventory of actual securities held by the broker-dealer on the customer's behalf. The repo counterparties, he said, didn't have such statements.

Eastman Kodak Co.'s disclosure statement was approved by Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper yesterday, bringing the former photography company one step closer to exiting from chapter 11 protection to restructure as a commercial imaging business, Reuters reported yesterday. Kodak declared bankruptcy in January of 2012 because of high pension costs and after falling many years behind rivals in embracing digital technology in its photography business. It has since sold a variety of assets, and will emerge from chapter 11 as a mainly commercial imaging-focused enterprise. Last week, the company announced it had reached an $895 million financing deal with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Barclays Plc.

The distributor of such cable-television shows as “Inside the Actors Studio” and “Live from Lincoln Center” has sought chapter 11 protection, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Cable Ready Corp., of Norwalk, Conn., filed its chapter 11 petition on Friday. Founded in 1992, Cable Ready sells TV programs to cable and satellite networks around the world as well as to airlines and cruise ships. It also develops shows and provides TV-consulting services. Cable Ready reported $3.17 million in assets and $4.46 million in debts in its bankruptcy petition. Its debt load includes $1.47 million owed to lender Norwalk Bank and Trust.

Ahern Rentals, Inc. announced yesterday that it exited its chapter 11 proceeding, according to a company press release. Ahern sought chapter 11 protection on December 22, 2011, after it was unable to extend the maturity of its revolving credit facility. Through the company’s confirmed reorganization plan, the company was successfully able to refinance its existing indebtedness and negate a competing reorganization plan from its junior creditors that had bought second lien debt at significant discounts. Ahern’s two owners, Don F. Ahern and John Paul Ahern, Jr., retained 100 percent of the capital stock in the reorganized entity, the second lien holders received par plus pre-petition interest and all other creditors received 100 percent of their allowed claims.

OnCure Holdings Inc., the bankrupt provider of services to cancer clinics, agreed to sell itself at a court-supervised auction with a $125 million initial bid from Radiation Therapy Services Inc., Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Unless another offer tops the stalking-horse bid, Radiation Therapy is required to complete the deal by Oct. 25. Under proposed bidding rules, OnCure agreed to pay Radiation Therapy a $1 million breakup fee and as much as $2 million for expenses should another investor win the auction.

Chrysler Group LLC reached a key refinancing agreement with lenders on Friday that lowers interest costs and loosens some restrictions as it paves the way toward further integrating with its parent, Fiat SpA, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Chrysler said on Friday that it had refinanced a $2.9 billion loan and a $1.3 billion credit line, a move that will save it about $50 million a year in interest payments.

TMT Group, a large global shipping company, has filed for chapter 11 protection, saying that it was unable to restructure its debt after industry conditions deteriorated, Reuters reported on Friday. Twenty-three entities collectively known as TMT, whose 17 vessels transport cargo from oil to vehicles, filed for chapter 11 protection from creditors on Thursday. TMT said that it had $1.52 billion of assets and $1.46 billion of liabilities, and wants court approval to hire the restructuring specialist AlixPartners as its financial adviser. The filing came on the same day that another large shipper, South Korea's STX Pan Ocean Co Ltd, sought protection from creditors in the United States, less than two weeks after filing for court receivership in its home country.

Hostess Brands LLC, the bakery company emerging from a second bankruptcy proceeding in four years, is preparing to resume selling its iconic snack cake, the Twinkie, nationwide in the U.S. on July 15, Bloomberg News reported today. The company, which filed for bankruptcy in January 2012 less than three years after emerging from a first filing, said that it plans to revive its complete line of snack cakes. Hostess is owned by Apollo Global Management LLC and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co., whose combined offer of as much as $410 million for company’s snack-cake enterprise was the only one submitted during the bankruptcy process in March. Hostess, founded in 1930, liquidated its brands, recipes, plants and other assets after failing to reach an agreement with striking bakers on concessions to help the company emerge from its second bankruptcy.

Kodak secured post-emergence credit facilities of up to $895 million with JPMorgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays yesterday, further paving the way for it to emerge from bankruptcy later this year, FoxBusiness.com reported yesterday. The finance package will enable Kodak to fund its exit from chapter 11 protection, meet its post-emergence working capital and liquidity needs and repay its secured creditor under the current senior and junior debtor-in-possession loan facilities. Kodak on Wednesday said that it would seek court approval in the coming days for a $406 million rights offering that would give its key creditors a large stake in the company post-emergence. Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak said that it will also seek approval from the bankruptcy court for the financing agreement announced yesterday.