ABI Blog Exchange

The Dallas auto lender might lose as much as one-third of its business if it severs ties with the automaker, raising fresh questions about whether its parent company will buy out shareholders and take full ownership.

In Momentive Performance Materials, the Second Circuit declined to dismiss as equitably moot the appeals of certain noteholders.  The decision highlights that successfully invoking the doctrine of equitable mootness may be difficult under prevailing case law where plan confirmation issues have been diligently appealed by parties in interest, even when a bankruptcy court has confirmed a complex plan of reorganization and the plan has gone effective.

Background

For context, Momentive Performance Material’s (“MPM”) capital structure included the following debt issuances:

Readers react to members of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's advisory board getting fired, opine on Sen. Elizabeth Warren slamming deregulation, weigh in on facial recognition technologies and more.

Let’s Ask for Sanctions! (But What Kind?)
Originally published by the American Bankruptcy Institute 2018.

Courts might issue sanctions pursuant to statute,rule of procedure or inherent power, but keep in mind the American Rule: Each party bears its own attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses, and attorneys’ fees are not ordinarily among the costs that a prevailing party might recover. Courts employ narrow exceptions when imposing sanctions, which might properly have a punitive aspect
and compensatory effect. This article will review 28 U.S.C. § 1927, Rule 9011 of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, the inherent-power doctrine and 11 U.S.C. § 105.  Read more.

The Insolvency Service intends to publish a new guidance notice to address the issues faced by employers in dealing with collective consultation when a company is facing insolvency, following consultation with the industry last year.

The guidance note is expected to require insolvency practitioners to notify the government in advance of collective redundancy proposals and to comply with the requirement to consult when seeking to rescue or wind up a business.

First Internet Bancorp in Fishers, Ind., which went public in 2013, could also use the capital for acquisitions and other investments.

First Midwest Bancorp has agreed to buy Northern States Financial in Waukegan, Ill., for $91 million.

Robert Broeksmit, a career mortgage industry executive, will succeed David Stevens as the president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Closing branches might be good for cost control, but it can also diminish the ability to gather core deposits. Banks with $2 billion to $10 billion of assets — which are ranked here by three-year average returns on equity — are learning this the hard way.