Puerto Rico

Senate president threatens lawsuits against anticipated Oversight Board labor policy and budget.

The legislature faces a June 30 deadline for making labor law changes or the Oversight Board will impose a previously certified plan that includes reductions in employee benefits.

The sale and lease of assets could raise money to pay off the power authority's debt.

The territorial government's resistance to the labor law may prompt Oversight Board to approve its own version of the budget due this month.

The April-approved fiscal plan had said just 39% of senior and senior subordinate bond debt would be paid in the next fiscal year.

Major Puerto Rico bondholders are balking at a tentative agreement that would steer to owners of sales-tax-backed debt a large chunk of the revenue they’ve been pledged, threatening to prolong a fight over one of the biggest issues in the island’s record-setting bankruptcy.

A brief period of peace between the Oversight Board and the governor may soon end.

The proposed settlement may determine how much money is available for the biggest class of bondholders in Puerto Rico's municipal bankruptcy.

Magistrate Judge Judith Dein said she'd take up the investigation issue at a June 18 hearing.

The bankuptcy court will hear a motion Wednesday to allow the probe, which could undercut billions of dollars in bondholder claims.

Puerto Rico was by far the largest recipient of emergency relief funding allocated by the Federal Transit Administration.

The disagreement over at-will employment is the latest episode on a struggle over policy measures intended to pull the territory out of recession and help in payment of its debt.

Investors, already frustrated with the lack of progress since PROMESA was passed, face at least another two years before most debt payments will resume.

Judge said that the relevant issues include federal as well as local law.

The Oversight Board's executive director said the budget's future is linked to government introduction of at-will employment law.

Muni market groups got a long-awaited win when the House passed banking legislation classifying certain munis as high-quality liquid assets, even if it wasn't as big a win as hoped.

The bank deregulatory bill passed by Congress on Tuesday would also make fewer banks systemically important and close a legal loophole that had allowed banks to defraud Puerto Rico investors.

Magistrate Judge Judith Dein's decision may help creditors in their battle over the territory's fiscal plan and debt payments.

The board gave up on plan to reduce paid vacation and sick time and eliminate Christmas bonuses, but gained a promise of island-wide at-will employment.

The decline in the unemployment rate is mostly due to emigration, a challenge as the territory restructures its debt.