Private equity: bank regulators tighten the collar on leveraged loans
NEW YORK, May 11 (Business Law Currents) – With the leveraged finance market coming back to life, bank regulators want financial institutions to seriously tighten oversight and maintenance of their leveraged portfolios. Leveraged loans are heavily utilized by private equity shops for their transactional activities but there is an ever-increasing concern that while loan volume has gone up, underwriting practices have deteriorated to unacceptable standards.
On March 26, 2012, bank regulators released proposed guidance on leveraged lending for public comment. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have proposed revising previous guidance issued in 2001 on leveraged finance as greater scrutiny is being placed on financial institution based risk factors. Proposals in this sector could potentially impact private equity shops by affecting one of their primary sources of funding for acquisition deals. (more…)
China shadow banking: dancing in the dark
HONG KONG/NEW YORK, Feb. 8 (Business Law Currents) – Uncertainty over the exact size of China’s underground private financing activities, also known as the shadow banking industry, is causing concerns among international investors as well as the Chinese government.
Restrictions on bank lending to China’s small-to-medium enterprises and to the real estate sector over the past few years have driven many of these businesses to seek alternative methods of financing from larger cash-rich entities. This demand for funding has in turn prompted the development of non-bank financiers such as trust companies and private short-term financing service providers. (more…)
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