European banks holding Detroit debt.

Here is an interesting breakdown in plain English on how some of the city's debt is held and how it was acquired.

But the owners of this $1.5 billion in now-imperiled COPs are largely European banks, including Dexia, Commerzbank and SocGen. They have been seriously weakened by the continent’s problems. They don’t want to write down more debt. And it’s not clear whether a bankruptcy court would force the city to keep paying the special purpose vehicle that issued the COPs and that in turn pays the banks.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/hedge-...231131356.html