The Fiduciary Duties of Directors

When a company enters the zone of insolvency (the so-called “twilight zone”), conflicts of interest between the company, its shareholders and the different stakeholders, such as creditors, are ignited and the pressure on directors for contradictory forms of action is intensified.

On 31 December 2013, Banco de Portugal issued instruction no. 32/2013 implementing new rules on the identification and flagging of distress debt financing restructures (“Instruction 32/2013”) and revoking its instruction no.18/2012 on the same matter.

Instruction 32/2013 is applicable to credit institutions and to financial institutions with lending activity as well as branches of credit institutions with head offices outside the EU (“Institutions”).

In a much-awaited judgment, the UK Supreme Court has decided that the liability of a company in administration or liquidation to contribute to an under-funded pension fund following a Financial Support Direction or a Contribution Notice is a provable debt ranking equally with other unsecured creditors. Crucially, it is not an expense of the administration or liquidation which would cause it to rank ahead of all creditors (except fixed charge holders) and even the administrator's or liquidator's own remuneration.

Summary

On 26 July 2012, the Pensions Regulator (the 'Regulator') issued a statement on financial support directions (FSDs) with the intention of providing further guidance and comfort with regard to the circumstances in which it will issue an FSD after a company has been placed into administration.