A draft bill on amendment to the Bankruptcy Code (Act XLIX of 1991 on bankruptcy proceedings and liquidation proceedings) was introduced into the Parliament on 12 April 2017 and is currently under review. If the draft bill was approved and published, the new rules would be applicable to the new liquidation proceedings and to new management liability related lawsuits. Lawmakers would grant a 2-month period to prepare for the changes.
Key areas for change are:
1. Fiduciary security interests would be elevated to the same level as pledge-type security
A U.S. House of Representatives Bill would amend the Bankruptcy Code to establish new provisions to address the special issues raised by troubled nonbank financial institutions.
In a 2-1 opinion, the Second Circuit overruled the district court in Marblegate Asset Management LLC v. Education Management Corp., finding no violation of the Trust Indenture Act (“TIA”) in connection with an out-of-court debt restructuring.
Background
Addressing a novel issue in In re: International Oil Trading Company, LLC, 548 B.R. 825 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. 2016), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida recently denied in part an involuntary debtor’s motion to compel production of communications between the judgment creditor who had filed the involuntary bankruptcy petition and the petitioner’s litigation funder. The Court found that the attorney-client privilege and work product protection were applicable to certain disclosures made to the litigation funder, a non-lawyer third-party.
The new Act CV of 2015 on debt settlement procedure for private individuals provides an opportunity for debt settlement both outside and within the scope of a court procedure.
Major parties to the procedure:
A new electronic database of bankruptcy and liquidation petitions, open to any company, is being set up by the National Judicial Office.
This will enable any company to obtain a certificate showing whether it has had a bankruptcy or liquidation petition filed or liquidation proceedings initiated against it (but in each case not yet finally decided).
The introduction of the database and certificate system into the Bankruptcy Code is the result of concerted lobbying by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary and CMS Budapest Office.