The government is planning to make significant changes to the UK’s pensions notifiable events regime. The changes are designed to ensure the Pensions Regulator is given advanced notice of material corporate transactions and financing arrangements which may impact a defined benefit (DB) pension scheme.

On Monday, in its response to the consultation on protecting DB pension schemes and strengthening the Pensions Regulator, the Government confirmed its plans to:

The US Supreme Court has unanimously held that a debtor cannot void a wholly underwater second mortgage in Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings. The decision comes in the consolidated cases of Bank of America, N.A. v. Caulkett, No. 13-1421, and Bank of America, N.A. v. Toledo-Cardona, No. 14-163.

Section 506(a) of the Bankruptcy Code provides that a creditor’s claim is a “secured claim to the extent of the value of such creditor’s interest in the estate’s interest in such property”—that is, it is a secured claim for an amount equal to the present value of the collateral—and is an “unsecured claim” for the remainder. Section 506(d) provides that, “[t]o the extent that a lien secures a claim against the debtor that is not an allowed secured claim, such lien is void.”