NEWS AND ANALYSIS
HOUSE JUDICIARY SUBCOMMITTEE CONSIDERS CHAPTER 11 VENUE REFORM
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law held a hearing today examining H.R. 2533, the "Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Venue Reform Act of 2011." Members of the committee expressed concern that a number of major companies have chosen to file for chapter 11 in the magnet courts of the District of Delaware or the Southern District of New York even when the debtors have little nexus to those districts. The witnesses for the hearing included Peter C. Califano of Cooper White & Cooper (San Francisco), Prof. David Skeel of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (Philadelphia), Chief Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Bailey (D. Ma.; Boston) and Prof. Melissa Jacoby of the University of North Carolina School of Law (Chapel Hill, N.C.). Prof. Skeel defended the current venue rules. All are ABI Members. Click here to read the prepared witness testimony for the hearing.
SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE CLEARS FDIC, SEC NOMINEES
The Senate Banking Committee today approved President Barack Obama's nominees to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Securities and Exchange Commission, though one banking regulator is likely to face further scrutiny, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Senate Banking Committee cleared the nominations of Martin Gruenberg to lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Thomas Curry, a member of the FDIC board and a former Massachusetts banking regulator, to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The panel also approved two nominees to the Securities and Exchange Commission: Daniel Gallagher Jr., a partner at the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP, and agency commissioner Luis Aguilar, who was nominated for a second term. Read more. (Subscription required.)
CFTC'S GENSLER SETS OUT TIMELINE FOR DERIVATIVES RULES
Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said that U.S. regulators are not going to take up some of the major new rules for the over-the-counter derivatives market until 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Gensler said that the commission will not take up rules on capital and margin for uncleared trades until next year. Rules for trading platforms being created for this newly regulated market are not likely to come up until 2012, Gensler said. The commission also is not likely to determine which types of derivatives will be required to be cleared until the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter of 2012. Read more. (Subscription required.)
ANALYSIS: DEBT HOBBLES OLDER AMERICANS
More Americans are reaching their 60s with so much debt they cannot afford to retire due to the fact that wages have barely kept up with rising prices over the past 35 years as Americans have pushed their debts higher, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis yesterday. Thirty-nine percent of households with heads aged 60 through 64 had primary mortgages in 2010 and 20 percent had secondary mortgages, including home-equity lines, according to research group Strategic Business Insights' MacroMonitor. That was up from just 22 percent and 12 percent, respectively, in 1994. While many households have deleveraged since the financial crisis, this is a challenge for older Americans on fixed incomes. Americans of all ages owed $11.4 trillion at the end of the second quarter, based on data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That's down about 15 percent from 2007 but nearly double what they owed in 1999, adjusted for inflation and population. Read more. (Subscription required.)
ABI IN-DEPTH
LATEST CASE SUMMARY ON VOLO: KEELEY AND GRABANSKI LAND PARTNERSHIP V. KEELEY (IN RE KEELEY AND GRABANSKI LAND PARTNERSHIP; 8TH CIR.)
Summarized by William Joanis, JoanisKeenan (Minneapolis)
The Eighth Circuit BAP affirmed the appointment of a chapter 11 trustee in the involuntary bankruptcy case of a partnership based on numerous allegations of misconduct and fraudulent behavior by one of the partners and also based on that partner's conduct in another chapter 11 case in which the partner was the debtor.
More than 260 appellate opinions are summarized on Volo. Click here regularly to view the latest case summaries on ABI’s Volo website.
NEW ON ABI’S BANKRUPTCY BLOG EXCHANGE: SWEDISH COURT REJECTS SAAB BANKRUPTCY BID
The Bankruptcy Blog Exchange is a free ABI service that tracks 35 bankruptcy-related blogs. A recent blog looks at a Swedish district court's decision to reject Saab Automobile AB's application for bankruptcy Protection.
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
It is too easy under current law for bankrupt companies to terminate pension plans. Click here to vote on this week's Quick Poll. Click here to view the results of previous Quick Polls.
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.
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