The New York Assembly has until the end of this week to vote on Assembly Bill A643B, the Champerty Fix Act, which applies New York’s champerty doctrine, the prohibition on buying claims primarily to litigate, to foreign sovereign debt. The bill cleared the Senate on June 2. No commitment from Assembly leadership.\n\nThe bill would cut the fixed 9% prejudgment interest rate on foreign sovereign debt claims to a market-based benchmark and allow courts to dismiss such claims where the purchaser acquired them primarily for litigation. Because New York law governs over 50% of sovereign bonds worldwide, the scope isn’t local: it could reshape enforcement rights on hundreds of billions in outstanding debt.\n\nSupporters, including debt-relief advocates, say it stops investors from buying distressed-country debt at steep discounts and suing for full repayment, which they argue bleeds nations already in crisis. Seven financial services trade groups, including SIFMA and the Managed Funds Association, oppose it, warning it would raise borrowing costs for sovereign issuers and push business to other jurisdictions.\n\nThe structural question the bill forces: if New York’s champerty defense gets real enforcement power, it hands London a pitch to creditors who want a more permissive forum. Financial groups opposing the bill are saying precisely that when they warn of deal activity moving to “competing jurisdictions.” A version of this bill cleared the Senate last year and died in the Assembly; if it doesn’t survive again, the reform window likely closes for a while.\n\nAssembly sponsor Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas said leaders haven’t made express commitments. Lawmakers adjourn Thursday, June 5.\n\n— James Okafor