The U.S. Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision on June 28, 2011, held that Bankruptcy Code § 546(e), which exempts a “Settlement Payment” from a bankruptcy trustee’s avoiding powers, insulated two sellers of Enron Corporation’s commercial paper from suit despite Enron’s early pre- bankruptcy redemption. Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. v. Alfa, S.A.B. de C.V., ___F.3d ___, 2011 WL 2536101 (2d Cir. June 28, 2011) (2-1).
Yesterday, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced that its Trade Information Warehouse (TIW) successfully completed on October 21st settlement of the over-the-counter credit default swaps (CDS) related to the credit event of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
Yesterday, the U.K. government published a report entitled "Developing effective resolution arrangements for investment banks" which sets forth, primarily in response to the September 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holding, Inc. (in particular its U.K. arm, Lehman Brothers International (Europe)), the U.K.
Earlier this week, Barclays Capital Inc., the investment banking unit and capital markets unit of Barclays plc, and Lehman Brothers Inc., the brokerage unit of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., entered into a settlement under which Barclays Capital will receive approximately $689 million in cash and securities for securities belonging to customers of Lehman Brothers that were never transferred when Barclays plc closed the sale for Lehman Brothers on Septemb
The Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems within Basel has published a report looking at how clearing and settlement arrangements for repos work and have worked during the economic crisis. It looks at issues that may affect resilience of repo markets and suggests ideas for strengthening them.
On April 19, 2012, the Lehman bankruptcy court handed down its decision on the long-pending motion to dismiss filed by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., in response to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s $8.6 billion avoidance action against it. The action sought to recover the value of collateral taken by JP Morgan in its role as principal clearing bank to Lehman in the run-up to the Lehman insolvency.
Background
Until recently Russian legislation was not familiar with the concept of close-out netting. Although there was no prohibition for market participants to enter into netting agreements, Russian courts would not enforce such agreements in case of bankruptcy. This led to the use of complex structures to avoid the negative consequences of the application of Russian law and was a strong argument in favor of using foreign entities and application of foreign law to derivative transactions.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has amended its bankruptcy rules (17 C.F.R. Part 190) to create a new “account class” for cleared over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives for purposes of calculating customer “net equity” and “allowed net equity” in the event of the bankruptcy of a futures commission merchant.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has proposed to amend its Bankruptcy Rules, 17 CFR Part 190, to establish cleared over-the-counter derivatives as a separate account class for the purpose of calculating “net equity” and “allowed net equity” for each customer in the event of the bankruptcy of a futures commission merchant.