Puerto Rico’s pledge to take the constitutional priority of its general-obligation bonds in consideration is seen as a message that the commonwealth is willing to work with investors as debt restructuring talks begin, Bloomberg reported. “It’s an important step for them just to reinforce that there are rules and that they’re going to try to work around them with bondholders,” said Matt Fabian, a partner at Concord, Massachusetts-based Municipal Market Analytics. “Maybe that works, maybe it doesn’t.” Administration officials tasked with reducing the island’s debt load or suspending debt-service payments met Thursday with Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla and lawmakers to develop guidelines for a potential voluntary exchange of existing debt for new bonds with possible security improvements.
