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Bankruptcy

Credit Slips

A discussion on credit and bankruptcy.
By Bob Lawless, Adam Levitin, Angie Littwin, Katie Porter, John Pottow, Debb Thorne, Elizabeth Warren

Post Frequency: 12.8/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 09:01:41

Is U.S. Bank Collecting Illegal Interest Rates?

Posted on June 05, 2010
When their customers have complained about an unexpected fee, credit card companies have pointed to the fine print in their credit card agreements. Now, a pro se litigant in California has turned the tables on U.S. Bank, saying it has...

Of BP, Caps, and Chapter 11

Posted on June 04, 2010
As BP moves through plans B through G in its attempts to stop the oil flow, and some analysts are suggesting BP faces liability of $40 billion or more, Congress has been looking at raising the current $75 million cap...

A Primer on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Posted on June 03, 2010
With a financial reform billpassed in both the Senate and the House, it seems that a Consumer Financial Protection Agency is going to become a reality. It's interesting to look back at the original development of the idea and then...

Protecting Public Benefits from Garnishment

Posted on June 01, 2010
Mark Budnitz at Georgia State University College of Law, in coordination with the National Consumer Law Center, is asking law professors to sign on to a letter supporting a proposal by Treasury and other federal agencies to mandate crucial protection...

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The Database You've Been Waiting For

Posted on May 27, 2010
I'm sure I'm one of about five people who are excited that the Federal Reserve's credit card agreement database is now up and running, but as a bankruptcy professor, you've got to get your kicks where you can. I have...

Atomic

Posted on May 25, 2010
Having been thinking about resolution authority for a while now, I'm coming to the conclusion that the resolution authority is not really designed to be used. Rather it is there for its deterrent effect. Like a nuclear bomb. It's atomic....

More Naked Credit Default Swaps--the Role of Dealers

Posted on May 23, 2010
These post titles should definitely increase the hits on our blog... I want to add another point to the debate: CDS are often done through dealers, and a naked position for a dealer is different from a naked position for...

Naked Credit Default Swaps

Posted on May 21, 2010
Floyd Norris has an interesting column today in the Times, arguing that speculative (i.e., "naked") credit default swaps should be outlawed. As I've long noted, credit default swaps (CDS) do have problematic effects on the bankruptcy system. CDS can encourage...

No Safe Harbor Reform, Yet

Posted on May 20, 2010
As some of you know, I've been working with Senator Bill Nelson and his staff on an amendment to the financial reform bill that would have rolled back the special treatment of derivatives under the Bankruptcy Code. Unfortunately, with today's...

U.S. Trustee Audits on Debtor Bankruptcy Filings

Posted on May 19, 2010
In March, the Executive Office of the U.S. Trustee (EOUST) released its annual report on audits of individual chapter 7 and chapter 13 cases. The audits identified a "material misstatement" in 22% of the cases examined for fiscal year (FY)...

Cautiously Optimistic

Posted on May 17, 2010
The Washington Post is reporting that financial reform may make it out of the Senate largely intact. The current bill appears to have a strong consumer protection agency and to cover derivatives -- two crucial issues going forward. I personally...

The Audacity of These Women

Posted on May 15, 2010
Credit Slips' Elizabeth Warren is on the cover of Time this week, along with Sheila Bair of the FDIC and Mary Schapiro of the SEC. In The New Sheriffs of Wall Street, Michael Scherer describes how a new crop of...

Interpreting Australian Interchange Regulation's Consumer Impact

Posted on May 14, 2010
A lot of the interchange debate in the United States now is about interpreting the results of the longest-standing interchange regulation experience, that of Australia. There's a lot of ridiculous claims made about Australia. So let's clear the deck. There...

"Beyond Foreclosure"--Conference in Chicago

Posted on May 13, 2010
On the morning of June 3, the Woodstock Institute is hosting "Beyond Foreclosures: The Impact of the Financial Crisis on the Wealth Gap and Economic Opportunity." The conference will discuss how the financial crisis has affected the access to financial...

Interchange Amendment Passes Senate 64-33

Posted on May 13, 2010
Interchange legislation is on the move. An amendment the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, sponsored by Senator Durbin passed the Senate on a roll-call vote of 64-33. The amendment instructs the Federal Reserve to regulate debit interchange fees...

On the Road Again

Posted on May 11, 2010
I'm off to the 2010 William J. O'Neill Great Lakes Regional Bankruptcy Institute in Cleveland. Tomorrow, attendees have the privilege sad duty of holding down their lunches while hearing me speak about bankruptcy filers. The whole conference is supposed to...

The Uneven Rise and Fall of Bankruptcy Filings

Posted on May 11, 2010
Using data from Automated Access to Court Electronic Records (AACER), I recently posted about the 4.2% drop in total bankruptcy filings for the month of April, which came on the heels of a 35% increase in the month of March....

Amendment to Repeal Marquette

Posted on May 06, 2010
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is sponsoring an amendment to the financial regulation bill that would undo most of the damage from the Marquette National Bank decision. In Marquette, the Supreme Court ruled the National Bank Act preempted state interest rate regulation...

End User Exemptions

Posted on May 06, 2010
I've been talking with Mike at Rortybomb about derivatives and bankruptcy, and the pending financial reform legislation. But being a professor, I of course have more to say about the ongoing debate about exempting certain "end users" of derivatives from...

Resolution Authority: Dodd-Shelby Amendment

Posted on May 05, 2010
Still digesting the new Dodd-Shelby compromise, but so far the implications for resolution authority that I can see are: Proceedings move from the Delaware bankruptcy court to the D.C. District Court. There is a hard cap on the length of...

I Become Spam

Posted on May 05, 2010
If you run a blog, you know about "comment spam." This blog is often hit by people who want to sell you a credit card or, more recently, want to turn your gold into cash (for them, not you). Our...

Bankruptcy Filings Drop in April

Posted on May 05, 2010
The daily bankruptcy filing rate in April was 6,631, which was a 4.2% decline from March. The April filing rate was 13.2% higher on a year-over-year basis, but that is the lowest year-over-year increase since the trough after the 2005...

More on the Small Business Bankruptcy Designation

Posted on May 04, 2010
A few days ago, I posted on the small-business designation in chapter 11 and how it appears to be honored in the breach. That post prompted further discussion on a listserv for bankruptcy professionals, which in turn led to a...

The New York Times on Chapter 11 Fees

Posted on May 02, 2010
As Adam has noted, the Times is out with a big article today on chapter 11 fees, focusing particularly on Weil, Gotshal and the Lehman case, where Weil acts as lead counsel. My thoughts: I found the article disappointing, in...

Bankruptcy Fees

Posted on May 01, 2010
Bankruptcy fees in megacases are getting some media attention. I can't say whether Weil's fees have been too high or not, I think a little context would help. Stating the billing dollars alone makes things look shocking, but how many...

The Disappearing Small Businesses (Designation) in Bankruptcy

Posted on April 30, 2010
The 2005 bankruptcy law was not just about consumers. It made a number of changes to businesses bankruptcies, including the expansion of safe harbors for derivative claimants about which Stephen Lubben has written extensively (e.g., here). Other changes were to...

The Financial Reform Legislation

Posted on April 28, 2010
Having been involved at the edges of the financial reform legislation for the past few weeks, a few observations to date: Warren Buffett apparently supports derivative regulation, so long as it does not apply to him. "Me too" say Goldman,...

Resolution Authority: Voting Rules

Posted on April 25, 2010
Presently both the new Financial Stability Oversight Counsel and the Federal Reserve Board must each vote to recommend action under the resolution authority, and each must do so by a 2/3 vote. More over, the Secretary then must decide if...

Resolution Authority: Missing an Umpire

Posted on April 24, 2010
The current draft of the Dodd bill does not provide for a anyone comparable to the bankruptcy judge in a chapter 11 case. Instead, the proposed legislation allows parties to seek review of the receiver?s decision to allow or disallow...

Resolution Authority -- Part 2 (The New Court)

Posted on April 23, 2010
This is a continuation of my series of posts on resolution authority -- Adam's got his series going too, but he's using Roman numerals. Under the Dodd bill, petitions to invoke the resolution authority are to be presented to a...

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