InSight Health Services Holdings Corp., which provides medical imaging services, has filed for bankruptcy with a pre-packaged chapter 11 plan, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The Lake Forest, Calif.-based company listed assets and debts of more than $100 million each in its chapter 11 petition, made Tuesday at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The plan, supported by more than two-thirds of the company’s senior subordinated notes and the shareholders, would give noteholders 90 percent of the reorganized company’s common stock in exchange for about $194.5 million of notes.  The shareholders will receive the remaining 10 percent of the new common stock.

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved new guidelines yesterday that try to balance the need for tighter financial controls with the cost of companies complying with them, the New York Times reported today. The new standards call for public companies to focus on the areas most prone to potential fraud, streamlining an auditing process that many have called excessive and burdensome. While big public companies had previously adhered to more rigorous standards, the unanimous vote by the commission’s five members paves the way for this more relaxed set of guidelines to be imposed on the smaller companies whose market value is less than $75 million. Small companies will have to adhere to the new guidelines starting on Dec. 15 for the 2007 calendar year. The commission had previously delayed the effective date amid complaints that complying with the rules would be too costly for small companies.

The Federal Reserve and other regulators are taking a closer look at the risks banks may be taking on in financing the boom in leveraged buyouts (LBO), the Wall Street Journal reported today. Banks have been major players in the surge of takeovers, both as lenders to and investors in buyout targets. As yet, there is little sign that this activity poses a threat to the banks’ health as they have strong capital bases thanks to years of strong profits. However, a buoyant financing environment has led investors and lenders to accept declining returns on all sorts of risky assets. Regulators see signs of that in LBO lending, particularly in what is known as “bridge” financing, or the temporary credit that serves as a stopgap between the buyout and longer-term financing. LBO loan volume hit $121 billion last year, compared with $31 billion in 1998, the peak of the previous cycle, according to Standard & Poor’s Leveraged Commentary & Data. Volume this year has reached $88 billion, more than double the year-earlier period. Meanwhile, interest-rate spreads have fallen to their lowest levels ever, and loan restrictions have been loosened.