New York state lawmakers ended the 2023 legislative session without voting on twin bills meant to overhaul the process for restructuring sovereign debt.
(Bloomberg) — New York state lawmakers ended the 2023 legislative session without voting on twin bills meant to overhaul the process for restructuring sovereign debt.
That puts the proposed measures, which stood to cap how much private creditors could receive from governments when re-negotiating debt, on ice — at least until state senators and assembly members reconvene for the 2024 session in January.
Proponents of the bills have vowed to push ahead on the legislation, which can be picked up where it was left in the New York assembly’s ways and means committee and the senate’s judiciary committee.
Supporters included religious groups, labor unions and debt-relief advocacy charities, which argued that a new law would help to speed up debt negotiations and restructurings.Â
With government defaults at a record in the developing world and remedy talks stalling, efforts have mounted to find clear solutions. But the New York bills spurred deep anxiety on Wall Street, where money managers argued that new rules would raise borrowing costs for poor countries without addressing underlying problems.Â
New York state’s laws govern the contracts for some $800 billion of outstanding emerging-market sovereign bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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