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COMMENTARY: TOO BIG TO FAIL? THEN GET A LIVING WILL



JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon's congressional testimony on trading losses has again stirred debate on the notion of "too-big-to-fail" banks, according to a Bloomberg News commentary yesterday by John C. Dugan, the former Comptroller of the Currency, and T. Timothy Ryan Jr., president and CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s losses were buffered by a strong balance sheet and sufficient capital levels to avoid putting the bank at risk. However, opponents of the Dodd-Frank financial reform's resolution process have used this to resurrect their belief that "too big to fail" has not been eliminated, but instead been codified into law. As former bank regulators who both sat on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board, Dugan and Ryan disagree that this step has taken place. The FDIC recently proposed a way of reorganizing a large financial institution under Dodd-Frank that would avoid runs by short-term depositors and creditors and prevent messy defaults on swaps and other derivatives. More important, the FDIC's proposal would also avoid taxpayer losses, which Dodd-Frank flatly prohibits. Instead, losses would be borne by shareholders and long-term creditors of the failed holding company. Long-term creditors would swap their debt for equity to recapitalize the company. The process would be functionally identical to a chapter 11 reorganization, according to the commentary, with two critical exceptions: It could be done much faster, and, if necessary, the Treasury Department could provide temporary loans (backed by collateral) to the reorganized company until market funding returns. Read the full commentary.

ANALYSIS: BREAKING UP BIG BANKS HARD TO DO AS MARKET FORCES FAIL



Politicians and regulators have resisted calls from some investors to split up conglomerates that were assembled over two decades by executives such as former Citigroup CEO Sanford "Sandy" Weill and former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. While these universal banks offered customers everything from checking accounts and insurance to derivatives trading and merger advice, the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent performance of the companies is calling that approach into question. Some investors, tired of unpredictable losses, costly regulation and legal headaches, have abandoned the banks in favor of more focused lenders such as Wells Fargo & Co. and U.S. Bancorp. Bank of America has traded below book value since 2009, while New York-based Citigroup has done so since 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. "It is not clear why a bank needs to do lots of activities in financial services that aren't banking," said Ken Fisher, CEO and founder of Woodside, Calif.-based Fisher Investments, which manages about $44 billion in investments. "The universal bank model is broken," said David Trone, an analyst at JMP Securities LLC. Read more.

CALIFORNIA FORECLOSURE-PREVENTION MEASURE NEARS FINAL PASSAGE



A foreclosure-prevention measure is one step away from final passage in the California Legislature, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. A two-house conference committee yesterday, on a partisan 4-1 vote, sent identical measures to the floors of the California Assembly and Senate with final votes scheduled for Monday. The bills, S.B. 900 and A.B. 278, are the most controversial elements of a Homeowner Bill of Rights legislative package sponsored by California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris. The bills aim to protect homeowners in two ways:

• They ban "dual tracking," when mortgage loan servicers allow borrowers to open an application for loan modification to lower their payments while at the same time the foreclosure process continues to move forward. Servicers would be required to provide homeowners with "a single point of contact" so that they will not suffer from bureaucratic runarounds.
  
  
  
• They give owner-occupier, first-mortgage holders a right to sue financial institutions, under limited conditions, if the lenders have willfully, intentionally or recklessly violated the law.

Bankers, the state Chamber of Commerce and the securities industry oppose the bills, saying that they are overly complicated, lack legal clarity and could spur many unnecessary lawsuits. The bills would take effect on Jan. 1 if approved, as expected, by Democratic majorities in both houses. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has not indicated whether he would sign the measures, though sponsors have said they do not expect a veto. Read more.

ANALYSIS: SOME STUDENT LOANS TO BECOME MORE EXPENSIVE DESPITE DEAL



College students are still facing a roughly $20 billion increase in the cost of their federal loans, despite a much-heralded deal by Congress to contain the expense of higher education, according to a Washington Post analysis yesterday. Starting Sunday, students hoping to earn the graduate degrees that have become mandatory for many white-collar jobs will become responsible for paying the interest on their federal loans while they are in school and immediately after they graduate, meaning that they will have to pay an extra $18 billion out of pocket over the next decade. Meanwhile, the government will no longer cover the interest on undergraduate loans during the six months after students finish school. That is expected to cost those borrowers more than $2 billion. Much of the recent debate about the nation's soaring student debt burden has centered on how to prevent the interest rate on new federally subsidized undergraduate loans from doubling to 6.8 percent on Sunday. This week, Senate leaders announced that they had finally reached a compromise on how to pay the estimated $6 billion cost of freezing the rate for one year. Congress is expected to approve the deal by Friday. Read more.

FIRMS RESIST NEW PAY-EQUITY RULES



As the final shareholder votes on executive pay round out this year's proxy season, companies are fighting another rule that could force them to disclose the gap between what they pay their CEOs and their median pay for employees, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The rule's supporters - a group that includes labor unions, institutional shareholders and left-leaning activists - say that it would force companies to consider rank-and-file workers during boardroom discussions over CEO pay and could put the brakes on executive compensation, which has been rising faster than inflation and the average worker's pay. The so-called internal pay equity provision, passed as part of the July 2010 Dodd-Frank package of financial reforms, is intended to expose the income disparity within public companies and help investors better evaluate the firms. Read more. (Subscription required.)

ABI IN-DEPTH

LATEST CASE SUMMARY ON VOLO: LEVESQUE V. SHAPIRO (IN RE LEVESQUE; 9TH CIR.)



Summarized by Emil Khatchatourian of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California

The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel held that the chapter 7 trustee had standing to appear with respect to the debtors' motion to reopen their chapter 7 case and motion to convert the chapter 7 case to one under chapter 11, and that the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in denying the debtors' motion to convert.

More than 500 appellate opinions are summarized on Volo typically within 24 hours of the ruling. Click here regularly to view the latest case summaries on ABI’s Volo website.

NEW ON ABI’S BANKRUPTCY BLOG EXCHANGE: FSB REPORTS REGULATOR REFORM IS ADVANCING, BUT SLOWLY



The Bankruptcy Blog Exchange is a free ABI service that tracks 35 bankruptcy-related blogs. A recent post looks at a June 19 report by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on the steps FSB member nations have taken to implement financial reforms designed to improve the stability of the global financial system. The FSB concluded that its member nations have made significant progress in implementing globally agreed upon financial reforms, but large strides are still necessary to protect the global economy against future financial crises.

Be sure to check the site several times each day; any time a contributing blog posts a new story, a link to the story will appear on the top. If you have a blog that deals with bankruptcy, or know of a good blog that should be part of the Bankruptcy Exchange, please contact the ABI Web team.

ABI Quick Poll

The full-payment rule in section 1325's "hanging paragraph" for new car PMSIs should be repealed to level the playing field between car lenders and other partially and fully unsecured creditors.

Click here to vote on this week's Quick Poll. Click here to view the results of previous Quick Polls.

IS YOUR ABI MEMBERSHIP PROFILE CURRENT?



Keeping a current profile will allow you to benefit from one of ABI's most important services - networking. When you update your profile, you are putting your most valuable information in the membership directory. Be sure to include your areas of expertise, firm information, education and join any other committees that are of interest. Click here to update your profile.

INSOL INTERNATIONAL



INSOL International is a worldwide federation of national associations for accountants and lawyers who specialize in turnaround and insolvency. There are currently 37 member associations worldwide with more than 9,000 professionals participating as members of INSOL International. As a member association of INSOL, ABI's members receive a discounted subscription rate. See ABI's enrollment page for details.

Have a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn Account?

Join our networks to expand yours.

July

- Northeast Bankruptcy Conference and Northeast Consumer Forum

     July 12-15, 2012 | Bretton Woods, N.H.

- Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop

     July 25-28, 2012 | Amelia Island, Fla.

August

- Mid-Atlantic Bankruptcy Workshop

     August 2-4, 2012 | Cambridge, Md.

September

- Complex Financial Restructuring Program

     September 13-14, 2012 | Las Vegas, Nev.


- Southwest Bankruptcy Conference

     September 13-15, 2012 | Las Vegas, Nev.

- 38th Annual Lawrence P. King and Charles Seligson Workshop on Bankruptcy & Business Reorganization

     September 19-20, 2012 | New York, N.Y.

October

- Nuts & Bolts for Young and New Practitioners - KC

     October 4, 2012 | Kansas City, Mo.

- Midwestern Bankruptcy Institute Program, Midwestern Consumer Forum

     October 5, 2012 | Kansas City, Mo.

- Bankruptcy 2012: Views from the Bench

     October 5, 2012 | Washington, D.C.

- Chicago Consumer Bankruptcy Conference

     October 8, 2012 | Chicago, Ill.

- International Insolvency and Restructuring Symposium

     October 18, 2012 | Rome, Italy

LIVING WILLS ARE DUE FOR SOME BANKS ON JULY 1, BUT FDIC'S HOENIG SEES NO CURE-ALL



Some of the biggest banks are being asked to submit by July 1 road maps for how they can be quickly and cleanly liquidated, but a top regulator said that he does not back using the so-called living-will process to break them up, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Thomas Hoenig, vice chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., also does not think that the new regulatory process will end "too big to fail"-- the expectation that the government will bail out faltering financial firms rather than risk the damage their failure would inflict on the system. "I want it to have good results, but it will not be the cure-all," Hoenig said in an interview. While the living wills will force bank management to better understand their own institutions, the largest firms will remain excessively big and complex, with too much of an impact on the economy, he said. The living-will process was established in 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Act. Read more. (Subscription required.).

REPORT: HOMEOWNERS SHOW INCREASED INTEREST IN EXPANDED HARP



A recent government report showed that more underwater homeowners have been taking advantage of an expanded Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) to refinance their loans and obtain lower interest rates, the New York Times reported on Friday. According to the June report by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in the first quarter 180,000 mortgages were refinanced through what is known as HARP 2, almost double the 93,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the highest quarterly number since the HARP program started in 2009. The program was expanded last fall with several modifications, including the removal of certain fees and a second appraisal, and an extension of the deadline to Dec. 31, 2013. In addition, the cap was removed on the loan-to-value ratio. When the program began, there had been a ceiling of 125 percent, meaning loans could not be underwater by more than 25 percent. Read more.

BIGGEST U.S. BANKS CURB LOANS AS REGIONAL FIRMS FILL GAP



The biggest U.S. banks are extending less credit amid a faltering economic recovery as regional lenders step in to fill the gap, Bloomberg News reported today. Total loans at the four largest U.S. banks -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. -- fell 4.9 percent to $3.04 trillion in the first quarter from the same period in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Lending by the 17 smallest of the 24 firms in the KBW Bank Index increased 9.8 percent to $1.27 trillion. Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. lender by assets, and Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America reported the biggest drops. Total loans at New York-based Citigroup fell 10 percent to $648 billion in the two-year period, while those at Bank of America declined 7.6 percent to $902.3 billion. Read more.

U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT PLANS TOUGHER RULES ON SMALL LOANS



The U.S. Department of Defense plans to strengthen rules designed to curb abusive lending to servicemembers as Congress considers changes to a 2006 law that regulates small loans, according to a senior military officer, Bloomberg News reported today. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved amendments to the Military Lending Act on June 6 as part of its annual review of defense policy, including one that would tighten the definition of "payday loan" to cover other high-interest products. Congress passed the law in response to complaints from the Pentagon that so-called payday loans were often harmful for servicemembers and that they affected troop readiness. The law effectively banned payday lending to members of the military by limiting the loans to an interest rate of 36 percent. The proposed changes would also require the Pentagon to study and regulate installment loans aimed at members of the military. "The legislation has been extremely effective in stamping out abuses involving these types of credit," Colonel Paul Kantwill, director of legal policy in the Department of Defense's Office of the Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness, said in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee today. Kantwill said in his testimony that the department may publish advance notices of proposed rulemaking once it is clear what changes may be included in the final legislation. Read more.

Click here to read the prepared witness testimony from today's hearing.

ANALYSIS: BIRMINGHAM LIKELY TO PAY A PRICE FOR JEFFERSON COUNTY'S BANKRUPTCY



While officials from Birmingham, Ala., say that they have a lot to offer municipal-bond investors, the city is the county seat for Jefferson County, which last year filed the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S history, the Wall Street Journal reported today. As Birmingham weighs a return to the bond market, its leaders will soon find out if the city will pay a price for the county's chapter 9 filing. Though Birmingham offers a jobless rate below the national average, a credit rating on par with New York City's and lots of cash in reserve, it is likely the city will pay higher interest rates than similarly credit-worthy cities and towns. The city and county keep their finances separate, and the contrast between them is stark. Jefferson County recently cut back services at its hospital for the poor and skipped a debt payment to preserve cash. County officials expect to run out of reserves by October. Read more. (Subscription required.)

ABI IN-DEPTH

LATEST CASE SUMMARY ON VOLO: SAMSON V. WESTERN CAPITAL PARTNERS, LLC (IN RE BLIXSETH; 9TH CIR.)



Summarized by Elie Ian Herman of Pace Law School

The Ninth Circuit ruled that termination of the automatic stay under Section 362(h) applies to all the debtor's personal property securing a creditor's claim, rather than just the personal property scheduled as securing that claim.

More than 500 appellate opinions are summarized on Volo typically within 24 hours of the ruling. Click here regularly to view the latest case summaries on ABI’s Volo website.

NEW ON ABI’S BANKRUPTCY BLOG EXCHANGE: SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO HEAR NET EQUITY ISSUE



The Bankruptcy Blog Exchange is a free ABI service that tracks 35 bankruptcy-related blogs. A recent post looked at the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to pass on the opportunity to decide how the claims of investors in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC should be calculated.

Be sure to check the site several times each day; any time a contributing blog posts a new story, a link to the story will appear on the top. If you have a blog that deals with bankruptcy, or know of a good blog that should be part of the Bankruptcy Exchange, please contact the ABI Web team.

ABI Quick Poll

The full-payment rule in section 1325's "hanging paragraph" for new car PMSIs should be repealed to level the playing field between car lenders and other partially and fully unsecured creditors.

Click here to vote on this week's Quick Poll. Click here to view the results of previous Quick Polls.

IS YOUR ABI MEMBERSHIP PROFILE CURRENT?



Keeping a current profile will allow you to benefit from one of ABI's most important services - networking. When you update your profile, you are putting your most valuable information in the membership directory. Be sure to include your areas of expertise, firm information, education and join any other committees that are of interest. Click here to update your profile.

INSOL INTERNATIONAL



INSOL International is a worldwide federation of national associations for accountants and lawyers who specialize in turnaround and insolvency. There are currently 37 member associations worldwide with more than 9,000 professionals participating as members of INSOL International. As a member association of INSOL, ABI's members receive a discounted subscription rate. See ABI's enrollment page for details.

Have a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn Account?

Join our networks to expand yours.

July

- Northeast Bankruptcy Conference and Northeast Consumer Forum

     July 12-15, 2012 | Bretton Woods, N.H.

- Southeast Bankruptcy Workshop

     July 25-28, 2012 | Amelia Island, Fla.

August

- Mid-Atlantic Bankruptcy Workshop

     August 2-4, 2012 | Cambridge, Md.

September

- Complex Financial Restructuring Program

     September 13-14, 2012 | Las Vegas, Nev.


- Southwest Bankruptcy Conference

     September 13-15, 2012 | Las Vegas, Nev.

- 38th Annual Lawrence P. King and Charles Seligson Workshop on Bankruptcy & Business Reorganization

     September 19-20, 2012 | New York, N.Y.

October

- Nuts & Bolts for Young and New Practitioners - KC

     October 4, 2012 | Kansas City, Mo.

- Midwestern Bankruptcy Institute Program, Midwestern Consumer Forum

     October 5, 2012 | Kansas City, Mo.

- Bankruptcy 2012: Views from the Bench

     October 5, 2012 | Washington, D.C.

- Chicago Consumer Bankruptcy Conference

     October 8, 2012 | Chicago, Ill.

- International Insolvency and Restructuring Symposium

     October 18, 2012 | Rome, Italy