Allison Bisbey

Institutional loan volume is expected to hit $500 billion or more this year or next as investors look to capitalize on higher interest rates. However, the prospects for leveraged lending by banks is murkier, according to a survey by the Loan Syndications and Trading Association.

Banks are providing less warehouse financing for collateralized loan obligations, so CLO managers have dusted off an old financing tool, delayed draws, to keep pace with demand.

Banks bulked up on collateralized loan obligations again in the first quarter for risk management and other purposes. But new deposit insurance rules are expected to deter them from buying more.

An effort to overhaul commercial bankruptcy laws is in its early stages, and creditors in the syndicated loan market sense a threat to some of their most important tools for guarding collateral.

Borrowers are taking advantage of demand for loans to reprice deals they originally brought to market as recently as a few months ago.

Flickers of life in the housing market are prompting homebuilders to seek revolving lines of credit from banks for the first time in several years. They are getting them, and money from the debt and equity markets, too.

Banks and institutional investors in loans caught a break when the SEC and CFTC decided not to define loan participation agreements as swaps under Dodd-Frank. A decision otherwise would have ended business as usual.

Robert Drain, a U.S. bankruptcy judge for the Southern District of New York, thinks the Supreme Court justices were right to leave leeway for the courts to deny lenders the ability to use their debt as currency in auctions.

Collateralized loan obligations are gaining new life as a way for nonbanks to finance loans to midsize businesses. NXT Capital's chief financial officer, Neil Rudd, explains how in detailing a recent deal.

Revolving credit lines hit their lowest point in two years in the first quarter. The decline underscored that competing forms of financing have become more affordable.

Citigroup has ulterior financial motives in trying to oust Highland as portfolio manager of Liberty CLO, Highland says in a lawsuit against Citi and two other firms.

U.S. banks and other shoppers were ready to feast on asset sales by troubled European banks, but debt finance expert Stephen Gillespie explains how accounting issues, regulatory policy and other factors have interfered.

Debtors and their lenders will square off before the Supreme Court next month over a bidding tactic that secured lenders use to preserve collateral in bankruptcy cases.

Banks that act as trustees on collateralized loan obligations must have strong credit ratings, and the threat of downgrades has many of them too close to the line for comfort.

CIFC Corp. and Sandler O'Neill pitch community and midsize banks on participation in syndicated C&I loan deals — a market normally dominated by the biggest banks.

Massachusetts' top securities regulator has asked Bank of America to turn over documents related to two collateralized loan obligations.

Investors in January backed off the higher rates they had been demanding for leveraged loans, but prospective issuers are reluctant to bite on the cheap financing for various reasons.

More investors in loans and other assets tied up in corporate bankruptcy fights have to file disclosures, but certain sensitive details about their holdings are no longer required.

Banks and others involved in buying and selling loans have won some battles and lost others relating to Dodd-Frank implementing rules. The next fight is over how tough to treat the cash-loan market.

"Real call protection" is "one of the biggest missing pieces of the loan market," according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch banker who syndicates leveraged buyout loans.