Strasburger Banker's Alert

American Airlines and Affiliates File Chapter 11 in New York

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:00:00 CST

by Steven A. Roberts
American Airlines and affiliates filed Chapter 11 in New York this morning. They have filed over 25 emergency “first day” motions designed to allow them to continue normal operations and pay critical vendors over $85 million (rather than forcing those vendors to wait until the end of the case to be paid along with the other unsecured creditors) but with strings attached....

New Texas Law Clarifies Banks’ Rights to Rents

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:00:00 CST

by Financial Services Group
EFFECTIVE June 17th a new Texas law, which applies to all existing real estate loan documents and transactions, drastically clarifies Texas law as to assignment of rents in commercial real estate finance transactions. The Key features are...

Mexico’s Unified Secured Transactions Registry Offers New Opportunities for Secured Lending

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:00:00 CST

by John E. Rogers with Ramiro Rangel
- Mexican companies have historically encountered difficulties in attracting secured lending from U.S. and other foreign banks, mainly because of concerns as to the reliability of Mexican laws governing secured transactions and of its systems for filing and perfecting security interests (garantías reales) in personal (movable) property or goods (bienes muebles). Mexican banks have shared these concerns and have tended to rely on real property collateral in most of their secured lending. As a result, many Mexican companies whose primary assets are inventory, receivables and equipment have lacked access to adequate financing on competitive terms.....

Connecting the Dots: The “New” U.S. Banking Crisis Policy; Also, Potential New Equity Source for Community Banks

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:00:00 CST

by Allan C. Wisk -
June 30 marked the end of the first half of 2010. Eighty-five banks have failed in 2010. At the current rate, failures for the year could total 170. The number is significant in two contradictory respects. First, the number is extraordinarily high. 170 bank failures would be the highest number since 1992 when 182 banks collapsed. Second, the number when compared to the 1980s indicates a wholesale change in federal crisis policy........

Former Regulators Weigh in on CRE Workout Guidelines

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:00:00 CST

by Allan C. Wisk -
On October 30, 2009, the FDIC issued a policy statement for bankers and regulators intended to clarify the rules for Commercial Real Estate Loan workouts. We spoke with Fred Casteel and Sam Golden of Alvarez and Marsal Financial Industry Regulatory Advisory Services. Its parent company is managing the liquidation of Lehman Brothers.......

Warren Buffett on Banking, Bank Regulation, and the Economy

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:00:00 CST

by Allan C. Wisk -
Warren Buffett was recently interviewed on The Charlie Rose Show on Bloomberg Television. He gave his views on Banking, Bank Regulation and the Economy. The following are excerpts from the transcript of that program provided to us courtesy of The Charlie Rose Show and Bloomberg Television......

New Federal Guidelines for CRE Loan Workouts Address Impact of Lower Appraisal Values

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:00:00 CST

by Allan C. Wisk -
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, which is chaired by the FDIC and includes the FDIC, Fed, OCC, OTS, and the National Credit Union Administration, on October 30th issued a policy statement on loan workouts, appraisals, loan classification, and nonaccrual and trouble debt restructure treatment which many believe brings greater clarity to loan workouts......

Spike in Bank Failures; D’Oench Duhme Returns

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:00:00 CST

by Allan C. Wisk -
While the banking industry has pulled back from the abyss of October, 2008, the third quarter of 2009 was one of the worst quarters in U.S. banking history; 50 banks failed. That number of failures for a single quarter was higher than the number of failures for a full year, in most of the years in which the FDIC has been in existence. On October 23rd, the number of bank failures in 2009 exceeded 100.......

Deterioration of Shared National Credits

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:00:00 CST

by Allan C. Wisk
On September 24th the Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC and OTS issued a joint release stating that the annual review of Shared National Credits for commitments of $20 million or more showed a sharp decline in credit quality. The review covered 8,955 credits totaling $2.9 trillion. U.S. Banks hold 40% of these assets......

Changes to Texas Real Estate Foreclosure Law

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:00:00 CST

by Allan C. Wisk
There were a great number of bills up proposed in the recently ended session of the Texas Legislature which dealt with the Texas real property foreclosure statute. However, all but three of those bills failed to pass.....