The High Court has recently expressed concern that distressed borrowers are being duped into paying money to the anonymous promoters of schemes, which purport to protect them from enforcement by lenders but are actually ‘utterly misguided and spurious’.

There are a number of schemes being promoted at the moment that supposedly protect borrowers in arrears from enforcement by their lender.

Simple retention of title clauses are commonplace and generally effective in contracts for the sale of goods. However, extending their effect to the proceeds of sale of such goods requires careful drafting.

The Court of Appeal has provided some further clarity around the creation and effects of fiduciary obligations in relation to such clauses.[1]

Proceeds of sale clauses

The Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas made an ancillary winding up order against Caledonian Bank Limited, a company registered in the Cayman Islands, under the Companies Winding-Up Amendment Act 2011.

The High Court has reiterated that cross-examination will not generally be permitted on an interlocutory application, or where there is no conflict of fact on the affidavits.

In McCarthy v Murphy,^[1] the defendant mortgagor was not permitted to cross-examine the plaintiff (a receiver) or a bank employee who swore a supporting affidavit.

Background

The English Court granted recognition of Chapter 11 proceedings in relation to a company that was incorporated in the UK but had its centre of main interests ("COMI") in the United States, confirming that the Directors were foreign representatives for the purpose of the Cross Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 ("the Regulations").

Two recent judgments have brought further clarity in relation to the rights acquirers of loan portfolios to enforce against borrowers:

The UK Commercial Court has dismissed the Claimant's application for a stay under Article 28 of the Judgments Regulation.

On 23 June 2016, a 52% majority of the British people voted in favour of leaving the European Union. It is unclear the extent of the effect this will have, but restructuring and insolvency professionals face an uncertain future if the EC Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings 2000 and the Recast Insolvency Regulation, which replaces it in 2017, cease to apply to cross border restructurings in the UK.

In AIB Mortgage Bank -v- O'Toole & anor [2016] IEHC 368 the High Court determined that a bank was not prevented from relying on a mortgage as security for all sums due by the defendants, despite issuing a redemption statement which omitted this fact.

In order to understand this case, it is necessary to set out the chronology of events:

Short stories

Amendments to the Czech Insolvency Act 2016