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Across the world, government support has kept insolvency rates down but as jurisdictions look to loosen restrictions and ease back into some kind of normality, governments can't foot the bill forever.

As financial support is withdrawn, restructuring, insolvency and corporate recovery practitioners will likely see a spike in activity, and offshore firms are braced for an increase in demand from clients. After that, there'll likely be lender enforcement resulting in formal insolvencies by the end of the year and into next year.

This article first appeared in Offshore Red.

Guernsey is a jurisdiction that is well used to requests from foreign insolvency office holders for assistance in collecting in assets located in Guernsey. Occasionally these requests involve assistance in interviewing former directors of companies in an insolvency process.

It's probably becoming a cliché to say that the future is already here, but it's hard to resist. New technology increasingly pervades every professional sector, including that of insolvency.

In a recent report by the Law Society on developing technology, the Chancellor of the High Court, Sir Geoffrey Vos, commented that: "Lawyers face a steep learning curve. They will need to become familiar with […] cryptoassets – conceptually and functionally."

In order to proceed against a debtor's personal property in Guernsey, customary law remedies are used which start with the arrest of a debtor's goods but which allow all creditors to share in the proceeds in the event that the monies owed are greater than the debtor's assets.

Arrêts

Once judgment is obtained against a debtor, the 'arresting creditor', will either: