Puerto Rico in Distress

ABI Analysis

The Puerto Rico Oversight Board’s proposed central government debt adjustment faces several obstacles, most prominently bond insurers’ possible withdrawal of support and local government opposition, Bond Buyer reported. Judge Laura Taylor Swain gave the board until the end of today to submit a plan of adjustment for bonds, pensions, and unsecured debts.

Puerto Rico’s governor announced yesterday that a federal control board reached a key deal that would reduce the U.S. territory’s overall debt by nearly 80%, but that his administration is rejecting it amid concerns about cuts to the island’s crumbling public pension system, the Associated Press reported.

Puerto Rico moved closer to resolving the largest municipal-debt default in U.S. history after creditors owed roughly $11.7 billion backed a settlement framework, the most Wall Street support yet amassed for a restructuring of the territory’s core public debts, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board reached a tentative agreement with investors on how to reduce $18 billion of bond debt and is seeking additional time to file a formal adjustment plan to the court, Bloomberg News reported.