Opposition to The Champerty Bill (Joint Trades)

Summary

SIFMA, SIFMA AMG, The Business Council of New York State Inc., Creditor Rights Coalition, LSTA Inc., MFA, and the Partnership for New York City provided comments to the New York State Senate opposing the Champerty Bill, which would materially damage New York’s position as the world’s leading financial and legal center for sovereign debt and negatively impact the very countries it intends to protect.

Excerpt

The Champerty Bill directly threatens a critical New York market. New York law governs a substantial share of the global sovereign bond market, with hundreds of billions of dollars trading annually under its framework. The Champerty Bill would drive new issuances to competing jurisdictional frameworks such as English, Delaware, or Texas law ¹—jurisdictions actively positioning themselves to capture this business. ² The result is clear: loss of high-value jobs, economic growth, and tax revenue for New York.

The Champerty Bill will increase borrowing costs and harm the very countries it purports to protect. Undermining enforceability reduces investor confidence. Sovereign issuers will be forced to offer higher yields to attract capital as a result. Those higher financing costs burden national budgets, reducing funding available for the essential public services the authors intend to protect. We urge you to reject the Champerty Bill.