The new legislation on liquidation proceedings in Republika Srpska (Zakon o likvidacionom postupku “Official Gazette of Republika Srpska”, no. 82/19) (“New LPA“) comes into force on 12 October 2019. It introduces new, simplified, form of voluntary liquidation of companies and other business entities, and detailed rules on liquidation of assets and claims settlement in ordinary liquidation proceedings.

Simplified liquidation proceedings

The Amendments to the Enforcement Act (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 54/2019) came into force on 3 August 2019 (“Amendments“) but will, all but one, become applicable only on 1 January 2020. The following are the main novelties:

Dormant enforcement proceedings pending against blocked bank accounts

Long-awaited amendments to the Insolvency Act, proposed back in October 2016, were finally adopted by the Serbian Parliament, and came into force on 25 December 2017.

Improvement of the position of secured creditors and boost to fresh money

Long-awaited amendments to the Insolvency Act, proposed back in October 2016, were finally adopted by the Serbian Parliament, and came into force on 25 December 2017.

Improvement of the position of secured creditors and boost to fresh money

Introduction

The Companies Act introduced in 2011 the obligation of the Serbian Business Registers Agency (SBRA) to institute compulsory liquidation over companies for failure to comply with legal obligations under the statute. SBRA is, inter alia, obliged to initiate compulsory liquidation over a company which has failed to:

(a) submit its annual financial statements for the previous year until the end of the current year;

The Serbian Parliament adopted in urgent proceedings the Amendments to the Law on Privatization extending the existing moratorium on enforcement of creditors’ claims held against the companies in privatization restructuring. The amendments are affective as of 13 May 2014.

As of mid-August 2014, the Serbian Insolvency Act applies in its amended form.

The new Serbian Enforcement and Security Act becomes applicable on 1 July 2016. The changes are numerous. This is the first in a series of our Newsletters in which we will address the novelties introduced by the new legislation.

The new types of provisional measures

Personal bankruptcy has been introduced for the first time in Montenegro. The Personal Bankruptcy Act came into force on 22 August 2015.