Businesses considering filing Chapter 11 for bankruptcy protection may not necessarily be able to avoid certain environmental cleanup obligations. The underlying policy goals of bankruptcy and environmental laws are in direct conflict in that bankruptcy law seeks to promote financial rehabilitation by discharging a debtor's past obligations in order to promote financial rehabilitation while environmental law seeks to ensure that the government can order responsible parties to clean up contamination, including historical pollution caused by business predecessors.
As the financial crisis unfolds, the impact on U.S. financial institutions of all sizes continues to grow. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took over 140 failed banks in 2009 at a cost of $27.8 billion to the Deposit Insurance Fund, a new high since the end of the savings and loan crisis of the late 80s and early 90s. For 2010, the FDIC is preparing for even more bank failures, increasing its budget by 35 percent and adding more than 1,600 to its staff.
On December 16th, the CFTC published for comment amendments to its regulations concerning the operation of a commodity broker in bankruptcy. The amendments would permit a bankruptcy trustee to operate, with the written permission of the CFTC, the commodity broker in the ordinary course, including the purchase or sale of new commodity contracts on behalf of the customers of the commodity broker under appropriate circumstances, as determined by the Commission.
The commercial real estate market is in distress. While residential foreclosures have received the bulk of media coverage, owners of commercial real estate are defaulting on their mortgages at an unprecedented pace. If your business leases commercial space, the likelihood that your landlord will file for bankruptcy is higher now than it has been in recent history. Because a landlord bankruptcy may occur without warning, tenants need to be aware of their rights and responsibilities in the event a filing does occur.
This past Monday, in the wake of last month's termination of TCW Group, Inc.
No. 09-6024 (8th Cir. BAP 11/30/09)
No. 09-6063 (8th Cir. BAP 11/24/09)
On Friday, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation closed Premier American Bank, headquartered in Miami, Florida, and the FDIC was named receiver.
Two decisions (one only weeks ago) have held that the scope of Bankruptcy Rule 2019 encompasses “informal committees” of bondholders and that such committees must comply with the extensive disclosure requirements of Bankruptcy Rule 2019.1 In a recent decision, Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi of the Delaware Bankruptcy Court came out the other way, ruling that such a committee was not a “committee representing more than one creditor” and, consequently, is not subject to Rule 2019.2 In so doing, Judge Sontchi considered but declined to follow the two decisions addressing the same issue:
Yesterday, the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit of the House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing entitled “The Condition of Financial Institutions: Examining the Failure and Seizure of an American Bank.” Participants in the hearing examined the current state of U.S.