Puerto Rico in Distress

ABI Analysis

MBIA Inc.’s National Public Finance Guarantee is urging Puerto Rico’s federal board to consider putting a receiver in charge of the island’s bankrupt power utility after the electricity provider lost two chief executive officers last week amid an uproar over their salaries, Bloomberg News reported.

Puerto Rico’s governor yesterday named a new executive director of the bankrupt Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), following the resignation of its former head and four of the utility’s seven-member board last week, Reuters reported.

A federal judge has refused to absolve the U.S. government of liability for investors’ losses on Puerto Rico bonds, a potential blow to efforts to write down the U.S. territory’s $73 billion debt load, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The ruling issued on Friday by Judge Susan G. Braden of the U.S.

The foreclosure machine that ground to a halt in Puerto Rico after the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria in September is slowly cranking up again, the New York Times reported. Island residents who fell behind on their payments are facing creditors ranging from Wall Street to the federal government.