We reported last week that the Government intends to proceed with its proposal to reinstate HMRC as a preferential creditor on insolvency, which could spell disaster for UK businesses, lenders and the UK economy. The Government has failed to listen to lenders and others who responded to the Government’s consultation about the impact of … Continue Reading
Crown prerogative dates back to the Magna Carta entitling the monarch to absolute priority for revenue related debt. Come 6 April 2020 will we really be heading back to feudal times and 1215? The proposal to reinstate Crown preference was announced as part of the Autumn Budget last year and came as a surprise to … Continue Reading
Paul Muscutt, London restructuring partner at law firm Squire Patton Boggs, talks to Andrew Tate, former R3 President, Chair of R3’s Policy Group and Partner at accountancy firm Kreston Reeves LLP, about conflicts of interest in the restructuring and insolvency profession*.… Continue Reading
The FCA Chief Executive Andrew Bailey announced 0n 27 July 2017 that market participants should not rely on the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) being available long term. The announcement made it clear that the long-standing benchmark used both in the UK and the US is to be replaced. The speech presented by the FCA’s … Continue Reading
In the context of German restructuring, bridge loans (Überbrückungskredite) are loans that are granted to financially distressed companies until a restructuring plan is formulated in order to avoid the company’s insolvency. In most cases, such loans are granted for a limited timeframe. After the restructuring plan has been finalized, renegotiations are usually required, in particular between the … Continue Reading
The recent Court of Appeal decision in Saw (SW) 2010 Ltd and another v Wilson and others (as joint administrators of Property Edge Lettings Ltd) is the first case to address the effect of automatic crystallisation of an earlier floating charge upon a later floating charge. In order for a floating charge to be a … Continue Reading
The German Federal Supreme Court for Civil Matters (Bundesgerichtshof – BGH) held in two cases on 4 July 2017 that provisions contained in the standard contracts of banks providing for the payment of management or loan administration fees (Bearbeitungsentgelt) by the borrower is invalid under German law, irrespective of whether the borrower is a consumer … Continue Reading
The English courts have recently wrestled with the Cross Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 (“CBIR”) in a case about the lifting of the automatic stay on proceedings against Korean company STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co Ltd In the present case (Re International Bank of Azerbaijan OJSC) the English High Court found itself dealing with the application … Continue Reading
The Insolvency Rules (England and Wales) 2016 (“IR2016”) came into force on 6 April 2016 applying to most corporate and personal insolvency regimes in England and Wales. However, there is still unfinished business for the Government and further regulation is expected to be introduced later this year to ensure the changes apply uniformly in all areas.… Continue Reading
Spain’s Civil Code provides that when the sale proceeds of a mortgaged property do not cover all the debt contracted with the bank, the debt continues to subsist and the bank may go against any other asset belonging to the customer, with the exception of properties that are untouchable, for the shortfall. However, a Court in Barcelona has … Continue Reading
Multiple class actions have been commenced in the Australian Federal Court in relation to losses suffered by investors in synthetic collateralised debt obligations and other financial products, some of which were distributed or sold by Lehman Brothers Australia Ltd (in liquidation) and by certain major Australian banks, and were assigned credit ratings by Standard and Poor’s. … Continue Reading
The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a public consultation on its guidance to banks on handling non-performing loans (NPLs), which is open until 15 November 2016. The ECB has also published the first stocktake of national supervisory practices and legal frameworks concerning NPLs. The draft NPL guidance to banks, which is available on the ECB … Continue Reading
When we review security for financiers, we always consider what enhancements they might implement to strengthen their security net. As part of this approach, we obtain a proprietor search from the Land Registry to see if there is any uncharged property in the name of the borrower. Often, any property identified is a short to … Continue Reading
A ruling by the Supreme Court in Spain says Spanish banks that held deposits for property that was never built are to be held to account. Around 100,000 people in the UK are thought to have paid big sums towards such properties in Spain but these were lost when several developers went bust in the wake … Continue Reading
IBA Insolvency Restructuring International in its Vol 10 No 1, March 2016 published an article by Sergey Treshchev and Elena Malevich, two practitioners in our Moscow office on Russia: Recent Developments in the Bankruptcy of Banks. The article provides a brief outline of the particularities of insolvency proceedings in relation to banks and credit organisations in … Continue Reading
Maple Bank GmbH (“Maple”) has operated in Frankfurt, Germany since 1994. The bank acted in the business areas of equity and fixed income trading, repos and securities lending, deposits, structured products and institutional sales. Maple has branches in Germany, Netherlands and Canada and subsidiaries in U.S., U.K. and the Cayman islands. It is part of the … Continue Reading
Hypo Group Alpe Adria AG, an Austrian banking group, was nationalized by the Austrian government in 2009 in order to avert a bank collapse. The Austrian province of Carinthia owned the bank until 2007 and the guarantees given by Carinthia for the bank’s debt still amount to several times its annual budget, which has made the winding-down … Continue Reading
When Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank International AG (Hypo), the Austrian bank, failed in 2014, the Austrian Government paved the way for the establishment of Heta Asset Resolution AG (Heta) as a wind-down vehicle to assume and manage large parts of its assets. The idea was to wind down Hypo by 2020. The Austrian “Act on the Recovery and … Continue Reading
