Single-Point-Of-Entry, Orderly Liquidation Authority and Chapter 14

In the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of “Across the Great Divide: New Perspectives on the Financial Crisis,” Randall Guynn, Kenneth Scott, David Skeel and Michael Helfer discuss legal strategies to resolve financial institutions, including single-point-of-entry, orderly liquidation authority under the Dodd-Frank act, or proposals for a new chapter in the bankruptcy code.

Proposed in 2012 by the FDIC, the single-point-of-entry strategy has widely been acknowledged as useful, both in the US and internationally (for example in Switzerland by FINMA). Guynn writes:

The key to solving the TBTF problem without taxpayer-funded bailouts is a high-speed recapitalization of the failed financial group that imposes losses on shareholders and other stakeholders but avoids unnecessary value destruction and preserves the group’s going-concern value. …

The SPOE strategy can be implemented under the existing Bankruptcy Code, although a new Chapter 14 could increase the likelihood of its success, particularly if it were coupled with a secured liquidity facility from the government that would be able to provide such liquidity under the most severe economic conditions.