On 1 July 2017, an extensive amendment to the Insolvency Act shall take effect. The amendment brings several substantial changes to a number of aspects pertaining to insolvency proceedings, including security of future or contingent claims (including bank guarantees), the assessment of a company’s insolvency and the discharge from debts.

Regulators have made clear their view that responsibility for the culture of a bank sits at the top; if senior management create the right culture, good regulatory practice and procedures will naturally follow. Following the financial crisis banks’ senior management have come under increasing regulatory scrutiny and in some jurisdictions proposals have been put forward to make it easier to make them accountable for their actions. To help you keep up to date with current developments, we have produced a comparative analysis of how senior management responsibility in banks is being treated in

Of the European countries which intend to implement the Fourth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive, only Germany, the UK and Denmark met the 26 June 2017 deadline for the introduction of a register containing information about ultimate beneficial owners of companies and enterprises (UBOs). This is one of the findings of a large-scale survey we conducted in the summer of 2017 among law firms in 32 countries.

On 26 June 2017 the deadline has passed for the implementation of the European directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing (the Fourth anti-money laundering directive). With this directive, among other things, the register of ultimate beneficial owners (UBO-register) was introduced. We have previously informed you about the proposed content of the Dutch UBO-register and the effect of its introduction. The EU member states had two years to implement the directive in national law.

The combating of tax evasion, fraud and the financing of terrorism is an important aim of the 2017 legislative agenda in the Netherlands. The approach chosen is mainly to increase transparency. To this end, the public UBO register is due to be introduced in the course of this year and there are plans to deprive holders of bearer shares of their cloak of anonymity. A private member's bill for the introduction of a central shareholders' register (in Dutch: CAHR) is now before Parliament. In this update we discuss the main features and current status of these measures.

As part of the legislative programme called ‘Recalibration of Bankruptcy Law’ the Dutch legislator has provided a statutory footing to the practice of pre packs (also known as “silent administration”). On 21 June 2016 the Dutch Lower House has adopted the legislative proposal Continuity of Enterprises Act I (the “Act”). The purpose of a pre-pack is to be able to prepare a possible upcoming bankruptcy in relative calm with the parties directly involved.

On 13 July 2016 a draft bill for the Recovery and Resolution (Insurers) Act (Wet herstel en afwikkeling van verzekeraars, the "Draft Bill") and an accompanying explanatory memorandum ("MvT") were published for consultation; the consultation period closed on 28 August 2016. The proposed new rules are intended to strengthen the legislative framework for the recovery and resolution of insurers. In this newsletter we discuss a number of the most important changes to be introduced under the Draft Bill if passed in its current form.

The Insolvency Office Holder-project (“IOH Project”) is an initiative of Leiden Law School, initiated in early 2013 and commissioned by INSOL Europe.

On 16 November 2016 the Minister of Security and Justice has submitted the bill introducing a collective damages action to the lower house of Dutch Parliament. Under the current collective litigation regime, no monetary damages can be sought on a collective basis. The essence of the bill is that this restriction will be removed, so that a group action for monetary damages is possible. At the same time, the bar is raised for collective claims in order to achieve a fair and balanced system, which provides a higher level of finality for defendants.

The Dutch Supreme Court (Hoge Raad der Nederlanden) decided on 25 November 2016 that the VAT exemption for the management of real estate investment funds is applicable only if the (manager of the) relevant investment institutions is actually subject to supervision / licensing requirements (as referred to in the then applicable Investment Institutions Supervision Act - in Dutch: Wet toezicht beleggingsinstellingen, "WTB"). The decision in in line with a recent judgment rendered by the Court of Justice of the European Union ("ECJ") on the matter.