Practice Areas
Banking
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January 27, 2012
Dutch Pension Fund Targets Goldman Over 'Toxic' RMBS
The Netherlands' government employee pension fund on Friday sued Goldman Sachs Group Inc. alleging the bank misled investors into buying toxic residential mortgage-backed securities.
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January 27, 2012
In-House Accounts May Stop Insider Trading, 9th Circ. Hears
A financial industry group urged the Ninth Circuit on Thursday to uphold a ruling for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC letting brokerage firms require employees to keep personal trading accounts in-house, saying the policy is needed to help detect violations like insider trading.
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January 27, 2012
Bahamas OKs $41M Chinese Loan For Bridge, Port Project
The Bahamas' House of Assembly authorized a loan agreement Thursday wherein the Export-Import Bank of China will put up $41 million for a Chinese company to build a commercial port and bridge in the Bahamas' northern Abaco Islands.
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January 27, 2012
UK Unveils Law Empowering Treasury In Bank Crisis
U.K. officials on Friday proposed sweeping changes to the county’s financial regulatory system that would give the British treasury sole authority to bail out banks in the event of a crisis like the one that crippled global markets in 2008.
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January 27, 2012
Gupta Defense To Hinge On Alleged Falling-Out With Raj
Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director Rajat Gupta will fight charges that he fed confidential information to now-convicted insider trader Raj Rajaratnam by showing the two had a falling-out that made any tipping unlikely, Gupta's attorney said Friday.
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January 27, 2012
Trustee Seeks High Court Review Of Garment Antitrust Suit
Factory 2-U Stores Inc.'s Chapter 7 trustee asked the U.S. Supreme Court last week to revive his antitrust suit alleging a group of banks that finance transactions between garment retailers and manufacturers forced the company into bankruptcy.
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January 27, 2012
EU Bank Puts Up €95M For Serbian Railway Improvements
The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development will loan Serbia's national railroad company €95 million ($125 million) to rehabilitate key sections of the Balkan country's main north-south rail line, the EBRD announced Friday.
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January 27, 2012
BofA Loan Relief Terms Block Probe: Ariz. AG
Arizona's attorney general asked a state judge earlier this month to stop Bank of America Corp. from forcing borrowers looking for loan relief to sign confidentiality and nondisparagement agreements, claiming the practice impedes a state investigation into the bank's loan modification program.
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January 27, 2012
Proskauer, Chadbourne Take Stanford Fight To Fed. Court
Proskauer Rose LLP and Chadbourne & Parke LLP said Friday that a group of putative class actions accusing the firms of helping shield accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford's bank from investigators belongs in Texas federal court.
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January 27, 2012
Trustees Fight Stay Extension On Tribune Clawback Suit
A Deutsche Bank AG unit and two other trustees urged a Delaware bankruptcy judge Friday against extending a stay in the Tribune Co. bankruptcy that covers a $28.7 million clawback suit against ex-Tribune CEO Dennis J. FitzSimons that is bound for federal court.
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January 27, 2012
Auditor Settles Claims Over $7M Charter School Bond
Darnell & Meyering PC, an auditor involved in a troubled $7 million bond issue for a Michigan charter school, on Friday settled Michigan federal court claims by a group of investment funds that the auditor had signed off on false financial statements related to the issue.
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January 27, 2012
First Annapolis Takes $14M S&L Merger Ruling To High Court
First Annapolis Bancorp Inc. this month asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Federal Circuit's decision to overturn a $13.7 million breach of contract ruling against the U.S. over broken goodwill agreements made to facilitate a bank merger during the 1980s savings and loan crisis.
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January 27, 2012
ADB To Sell $267M In Bonds For Asian Water Projects
The Asian Development Bank is selling roughly $267 million in bonds to Japanese investors to finance clean water and irrigation projects in Asia and the Pacific, the Manila, Philippines-based bank announced Friday.
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January 27, 2012
Regions Latest To Be Nailed With Overdraft Fee Action
Banking company Regions Financial Corp. was hit Friday in Georgia federal court with a proposed class action by debit card holders that accuses the bank of illegally assessing and collecting excessive overdraft fees, joining a number of banks who have recently faced similar allegations.
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January 27, 2012
IFC, UK Pour $153M Into PE Fund For Green Projects
The International Finance Corp. and the U.K. have agreed to invest about $153.5 million into a private equity fund for eco-minded companies in emerging markets, Washington-based IFC announced Friday.
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January 27, 2012
EU Joins Growing Chorus Of Dismay Over Volcker Rule
The European Commission will reportedly raise objections with the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury over proposed U.S. regulations to restrict major banks' proprietary trading activities, joining Japanese and Canadian regulators who have already complained about the rule.
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January 27, 2012
7th Circ. Affirms Bankers’ OT Class Despite Dukes
The Seventh Circuit upheld the certification of two classes of bank employees under Illinois state law in an overtime case Friday, the first time a circuit court has addressed the application of the Walmart v. Dukes commonality analysis to wage-and-hour class actions.
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January 27, 2012
Countrywide Fights Lower Fraud Bar In Insurer Suits
Bank of America Corp.'s Countrywide Financial Corp. on Wednesday appealed a New York state judge's decision limiting what monoline insurers must show to put Countrywide on the hook for billions of dollars in losses from securitized mortgages they insured.
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January 27, 2012
Swiss Institution Sells Non-US Business Amid Tax Scandal
Switzerland's oldest bank, Wegelin & Co., is sending its non-U.S. clients and staff to Notenstein Private Bank Ltd. for an undisclosed sum as it struggles with U.S. authorities' charges that it lets American clients hide assets, Wegelin said Friday.
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January 27, 2012
UK Imposes More Fines Over Greenlight Insider Trading
A U.K. financial watchdog has fined a former Greenlight Capital (UK) LLP compliance officer £130,000 ($204,204) in a continued crackdown over Greenlight's alleged insider trading on information about British pub chain Punch Taverns PLC, the regulator said Friday.
Expert Analysis
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Case Study: Wells Fargo V. Cherryland Mall
In light of the Michigan Court of Appeals ruling in Wells Fargo Bank NA v. Cherryland Mall Limited Partnership, when negotiating carve-out provisions in loan documents, be aware that single purpose entity covenants requiring solvency and adequacy of capital may in themselves trigger full recourse liability, without any accompanying outright “bad boy” acts, say attorneys with Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP.
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How Eurozone Breakup Would Affect Corporate Bonds
While members of the eurozone have taken actions to stabilize their monetary union, it is important to consider what might happen to a corporate bond or loan denominated in euros in two possible breakup scenarios, say Gregory Fernicola and Michael Schwartz of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.
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'Extend And Pretend' Meets The Great Deleveraging
The failure of companies to deleverage the excesses of the bubble years appears to be at least partially attributable to the fact that some lenders, already burdened with defaulted loans, have been reluctant to declare further defaults unless the situation is dire. Instead, lenders have been amending loan documents to waive defaults and extend maturities, says Nicholas Kajon of Steven & Lee PC.
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The Dodd-Frank Test For Bank Expansion
The Federal Reserve Board's statement setting forth the rationale for its approval of the expansion proposal by The PNC Financial Services Group is very important because it sets out the initial template the board will apply going forward when it has to review a bank acquisition application, says Michael Bleier of Reed Smith LLP.
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Widening The Net Under Iran Sanctions Act
As tensions grow between the U.S. and Iran, and the U.S. seeks to restrict Iran’s access to oil revenues, it appears likely that the U.S. will continue to pursue a mixture of persuasion and economic coercion against entities and perhaps even states that continue to do business as usual with Tehran, say attorneys with Steptoe & Johnson LLP.
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The CFPB's Case For Supervisory Examination Privilege
An argument can be made supporting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent analysis that it inherited the privileged information protections of Federal Deposit Insurance Act § 18(x), but the only effective way to protect against a waiver when privileged information is disclosed to the CFPB is to amend the FDIC to include the bureau, say Kevin Petrasic and Michael Hertzberg of Paul Hasting LLP.
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Case Study: Assured Guaranty V. JP Morgan
Although the New York Court of Appeals decision in Assured Guaranty (UK) Ltd. v. J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. makes clear that any common law claims brought by investors in a private securities action are not precluded by the Martin Act, the case does nothing to curb the effects of the Securities Litigation Uniform Standard Act, say attorneys with Hogan Lovells LLP.
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How STOCK Act Could Restrict 'Political Intelligence'
The primary purpose of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act is to close a loophole in the law that may allow members of Congress to legally trade securities based upon nonpublic "political intelligence." However, the legislation could have significant, perhaps unintended, consequences for investment advisers and those in the financial services industry, say Scott Gluck and Rob Smith of Venable LLP.
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Deconstructing WaMu
The recent rejection of Washington Mutual Inc.'s plan of reorganization by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court illustrates that ad hoc committee participation creates enhanced risk of insider trading claims for creditors that engage in active trading. Deconstructing the opinion yields constructive guidance for ad hoc committee members determined to avoid the type of attention paid to their counterparts in WaMu, say attorneys with Richards Kibbe & Orbe LLP.
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Working With Lenders — A Developer's Perspective
As we valiantly work our way out of this Great Recession — something I consider to be more like a depression in the real estate world — we continue to see many developers being hounded by their lenders. In dealing with conventional lenders on a more local level, the following are three of the many lessons we have learned, says Harvey Temkin of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren SC.