Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico will need help from Washington to maintain future market access and avoid a descent into "third-world" economic conditions, municipal bond fund managers said.

The House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday postponed its scheduled release of a new bill to help Puerto Rico for what members hope will be only one day as discussions about acceptable revisions continued.

Puerto Rico economists are concerned credit unions, which provide financial services to more than a third of the island's citizens, may prove vulnerable as the debt crisis ripples through the local economy.

Ambac Assurance Corp. sued the Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority to prevent what the insurer called improper siphoning of money.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority demanded Tuesday that its negotiating bondholders lend it $111 million by the end of Thursday.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority Bondholder Group is offering to advance their arrangements with PREPA through putting money into escrow.

With the House Natural Resources Committee planning to release a new Puerto Rico bill on Wednesday and vote on it a week later, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew traveled to the commonwealth to hold meetings to drum up support for a legislative solution.

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, said Puerto Rico has to “cut its debt way down” in order to survive.

Puerto Rico has declared a moratorium on payments on an additional Puerto Rico Infrastructure Finance Authority bond issue.

S&P Global Ratings said it lowered its issuer credit rating on the senior unsecured debt of the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico (GDB) to D (default) from CC.