The “Sanierungsklausel “ was first adopted in July 2009 with a retroactive effect from 1 January 2008. For the time being only a temporary instrument to overcome the aftermath of the financial crises, the German lawmaker lifted the time limitation already in December 2009. The Commission learned all about this from the newspapers. A formal procedure was launched by the Commission in subsequence in February 2010. The “Sanierungsklausel” enables ailing companies to offset losses in a given year against profits in future years despite changes in its shareholder structure.

In Re North East Property Buyers Litigation [2010] the English High Court was asked to determine preliminary issues in nine test cases. In these cases the mortgagees were seeking possession of properties following default by borrowers. The defaulting borrowers had acquired their properties as part of sale and leaseback arrangements. The seller occupiers had never vacated the properties and were disputing the mortgagees' rights to repossess on the basis that their actual occupation of the properties was an overriding interest that had priority over any rights of the mortgagees to repossess.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has powers to make third parties liable to provide support or funding to an occupational pension scheme in certain circumstances. Briggs J had to consider how a financial support direction (FSD) should be treated if issued against a company in administration. He considered the law to be in a mess and not fit for purpose but felt obliged due to binding case law to hold that.

Government should address current insolvency laws to stop pension schemes becoming “super-creditors” following the Nortel and Lehman Brothers ruling, the Confederation of British Industry says.

The development of insolvency legislation in modern Russia has lasted for more than 17 years. Three insolvency laws have been adopted and succeeded each other since 1992. Even in the last three years, nine amendments have been made to the current law passed in 2002, with the last edition of the law coming into force in June 2009. Frequent revisions of the law testify that the legislation lags behind the intensive development of the market economy in Russia and demand radical modernisation.

Serbia has made great strides in improving its system of bankruptcy administration beyond revision of laws and regulations. The Bankruptcy Supervision Agency, charged with regulatory oversight of nearly 400 licensed bankruptcy administrators, faces the challenge of effective supervision with limited financial and human resources. The Agency will soon be aided by an electronic Risk Based Management System, introduced by the Bankruptcy and Enforcement Strengthening (BES) project, implemented by Booz Allen Hamilton and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Spanish legal system provides certain protections for creditors of companies that have in fact ended their commercial trading. These companies have been abandoned by their partners and managers, rendering them inactive, yet they have not dissolved and liquidated pursuant to the established processes established by law for that effect. In most cases, they are insolvent companies unwilling to deal with their corporate debts and obligations.

A recent Supreme Court decision reviewed the law on directors' duties.(1) The case concerned restriction orders against directors of an insolvent company in liquidation, which apply unless it is shown that the person acted honestly and responsibly in relation to the conduct of the company's affairs and that there is no other reason why it would be just and equitable that he or she be restricted.

On March 8 2010 the Amsterdam District Court dismissed an application by the administrators of the Dutch branch of Landsbanki hf to extend the term of the emergency regulations that had been declared applicable to the Dutch branch by the court on October 13 2008.(1) As a result, the regulations ceased to apply on March 13 2010. Facts Landsbanki hf is an Icelandic bank based in Reykjavik and a credit institution pursuant to Article 1(1) of the EU Directive on Consolidated Banking (2000/12/EC) and Section 1:1 of the Dutch Financial Supervision Act.