Puerto Rico in Distress

ABI Analysis

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo led a delegation to Puerto Rico on Monday in hopes of helping the territory address its debt crisis, saying the situation “is threatening the livelihoods of millions of people — many with strong connections to New York,” the Wall Street Journal reported today.

Marco Rubio opposes giving Puerto Rico the same type of bankruptcy protection available to U.S. towns and cities mired in fiscal crisis, the Florida senator will say Friday as he visits the American territory for the first time as a 2016 contender, the Politico reported today.

Puerto Rico's public utility PREPA and a key bondholder group have reached the framework of a debt restructuring deal that would include a repayment reduction of up to 15 percent for bondholders, Reuters reported today. The deal, under which PREPA would issue new, securitized debt, likely with a higher credit rating, had not been officially signed and could still fall apart.

Puerto Rico said that Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla granted an extension for when advisers are scheduled to deliver a proposal to restructure the commonwealth’s $72 billion debt burden to Sept. 8 because government officials were focused in the past week on the possible impact of tropical storm Erika, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.