A significantly wider statutory liability regime for issuers comes into force on 1 October 2010. The changes are particularly important for issuers with securities traded in the UK, or which have the UK as their home state. The original regime will be expanded in a variety of ways. The new liability regime will cover not just periodic financial disclosures that are required under the Transparency Directive but all information published, or the availability of which is announced, using an RIS.

The recent sale of the bulk of Connaught's failed social housing group has received a lot of positive press attention of late, due largely to the number of jobs the deal is reported to have saved. The sale appears to have occurred within days of Connaught going into administration. While there has been no suggestion that the deal was effected as a "pre-pack", the speed with which the sale was carried out echoes the most prominent feature of true pre-pack deals. Pre-packs are often subject to negative publicity.

Since 2008 there has been one word which has been repeated over and over in each language across the world: “financial crisis”. What happened in the last two years? It seems that nobody knows: it has been a contemporary hurricane. It made no difference if we talked about the well-respected European-automotive company, a billion-euro London-based financial institution or even sovereign states; they all needed help. Just as in the 1850s when the railway industry in Arkansas received state aid, severalMember States had to go into rescue business again.

The United Kingdom’s Commercial Secretary to the Treasury launched a consultation on a new special-resolution regime, Special administration regime for investment firms, to strengthen the government’s ability to handle future insolvencies of failing investment banks to minimize cost and disruption of the overall national financial system. The proposed regime acknowledges the importance of investment firms in providing market liquidity, and the substantial strain on financial stability following a failure of an investment firm, such as occurred when Lehman Brothers Holding Inc.

The Government is conducting a detailed review of resolution arrangements for failing investment banks. As part of this review the Government published a consultation paper on a new special administration regime for investment firms. The consultation is aimed at the financial services, legal advisors,insolvency practitioners, investment firms. The special administration regime is based on the proposals previously set out in the December 2009 consultation paper Establishing resolution arrangements for investment banks and the responses to that paper.

On July 24, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Sun Capital Partners III LP v. New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund, held that a private equity fund was a “trade or business” under the controlled group rules of ERISA, and, as a result, could be held jointly and severally liable for the pension obligations of a bankrupt portfolio company.

Prof. Bob Wessels reviews a recent judgment and asks, does this spark a total legal u-turn in England?

The Insolvency Service recently opened a consultation (the "Consultation") on its proposals for a restructuring moratorium. Under the proposals, eligible companies satisfying certain qualifying conditions would be able to apply to court for a moratorium to prevent creditor action (a "Moratorium").

Guidance published by HMRC in its Corporate Finance Manual has recently been updated to reflect a change in practice regarding the corporation tax treatment of debt for equity swaps. Debt for equity swaps are commonly used in corporate restructuring, particularly when a company is in financial difficulty.

Transparency International UK, in association with FTI Consulting and Halcrow, has published comprehensive Guidance on Adequate Procedures under the UK Bribery Act 2010. The guide is available to download free of charge. www.transparency.org.uk/working-with-companies/adequate-procedures?format=pdf