In his Pre-Budget Report delivered on 24 November 2008, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling announced the Government’s intention to introduce special insolvency procedures for investment firms holding client assets or client money.  

The procedures will be introduced by secondary legislation under the Banking Bill (which was introduced into Parliament in October 2008) following a government sponsored review by an expert liaison group.  

The review, to be concluded by summer 2009, will consider, inter alia:  

Following a long line of cases preceding it, the English court in Re Van Gansewinkel Groep BV (‘VGG’) 1 has sanctioned a (solvent) English scheme of arrangement (‘Scheme’) under the Companies Act 2006 (the ‘Companies Act’) proposed by a group of foreign companies whose COMI2 and assets were located outside of England (‘foreign companies’).

On 31 July 2015, the English High Court delivered its judgments in the ‘Waterfall IIA’ and ‘Waterfall IIB’ cases. The decisions are important to stakeholders in determining key questions about how, following payment in 2014 of all the provable claims, the estimated £7.39-billion surplus (the ‘Surplus’) in Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (in administration) (‘LBIE’) will be shared amongst them. For others, the decisions may be of general interest in probing some rarely aired legal issues relating to the lower levels of the insolvency payment waterfall.

The English Cases —Further Extension of UK Scheme of Arrangement for the Benefit of Foreign Companies

The Bank's Restructuring Proposal

Yesterday, 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.

Citing public opposition to the bill, on Tuesday the president of Iceland vetoed legislation that would provide a state guarantee for repayment of approximately $5 billion of loans provided by the U.K.

Yesterday, the U.K. Treasury announced that it had published a report setting out detailed proposals for the effective management and resolution of failed investment banks.

Today, the U.K. Treasury and Northern Rock plc separatelyannounced that the restructuring of Northern Rock will take place on January 1, 2010 (Transfer Date).

Today, HM Treasury announced the conclusion of discussions with Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds) and Royal Bank of Scotland Plc (RBS), regarding their participation in the U.K.