Puerto Rico in Distress

ABI Analysis

Puerto Rico faces a “dangerous financial dilemma” because of the U.S. Treasury Department’s delay in providing billions of dollars of disaster relief needed to help it recover from the wreckage caused by Hurricane Maria, the island’s governor said in a letter to Senate and House leaders, Bloomberg News reported.

Puerto Rico should “start from scratch” rebuilding its already outdated power infrastructure after deadly Hurricane Maria last year devastated it and left citizens marooned, the U.S. central banker overseeing the island territory said on Thursday, Reuters reported. New York Fed President William Dudley did not comment on U.S.

Fluor Corp.’s work repairing hurricane damage to Puerto Rico’s still-hobbled electrical grid is winding down as its federal funding runs out, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said yesterday, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Army Corps had tapped Fluor to repair electric lines damaged in Hurricane Maria under an $840 million contract.

A U.S. regulator yesterday filed a lawsuit against 16 U.S. and international banks alleging they had manipulated bbaLIBOR, which is a series of interest-rate benchmarks, leading to the collapse of Puerto Rico’s Doral Bank, Reuters reported.

Other Resources

The Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico was created under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act of 2016. The Board consists of seven members appointed by the President of the United States and one ex officio member designated by the Governor of Puerto Rico. Access information on the Board, documents, videos of meetings, calendar of events and live webcasts by clicking here.