PROMESA

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board want the U.S. Appeals Court for the First Circuit to uphold a lower court's rejection of the bondholders greater than $3.7 billion claim.

A pair of decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court may lead to a more pro-bondholder Puerto Rico Oversight Board.

Puerto Rico's debt and budget situations have improved but its political culture and economic trajectory haven't, many observers say.

Separately, the Puerto Rico Oversight Board approved the second consecutive consensually agreed upon budget, balanced according to modified accrual standards.

The bond parties want the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston to overturn the U.S. District Court's rulings on their efforts to gain control of PREPA.

Bond parties said U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain's arguments against a claim were wrong on several bases.

The defendants include many of the largest municipal bond underwriters.

MBIA says it isn't responsible for what its subsidiaries did.

The Energy Bureau said rate adjustments that would help pay off debt should be considered after a PREPA plan of adjustment is approved.

U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the parties in the PREPA bankruptcy to focus on the bondholders' accounting counterclaim.

Judge Laura Taylor Swain is allowing the continued examination of a count in which a trustee is challenging fees, and some proceeds, of pre-bankruptcy bonds.

U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain suggested the board should include a contingent vehicle instrument in the proposed plan of adjustment.

Without that claim, bondholders are fighting for repayment of about $8.5 billion.

MBIA Inc. used National Public Finance Guarantee and MBIA Insurance to "perpetrate a fraud on investors," the COFINA bondholders said.

A federal judge dismissed a case against Ambac Financial, Ambac Assurance, National Public Finance Guarantee and MBIA Insurance but allowed the case against MBIA Inc. to continue.

The government plans to use surplus funds from fiscal years 2022 to 2024 to fund the payments.

The board wants the court to reject a wide range of bondholder discovery requests related to their administrative expense claim.

The tax reform costs will be offset by reductions in certain government spending, application of excess revenues that are coming in, and elimination of certain tax exemptions.

Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González Colón filed suit to end the island's contract with LUMA Energy for electrical transmission and distribution.

This is the first upgrade of bonds supported by assets currently or formerly in the Puerto Rico government's hands since the passage of PROMESA in 2016.