Following an August 4, 2022 memorandum opinion from Judge Brendan L. Shannon of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, a party to a safe harbored contract can qualify as a “financial participant” under section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code even where the party was not a financial participant at the time of the transaction.

Effective from 1 August 2022, a new Restructuring Act (Sw. lag om företagsrekonstruktion), which implements the EU Directive on restructuring and insolvency (the "Restructuring Directive"), comes into force in Sweden. As further explained below, the aim of the new Restructuring Act is to improve the Swedish restructuring regime by introducing a number of new features previously unknown to Swedish law.

In Re Tantleff, Alan [2022] SGHC 147, the Singapore High Court considered for the first time whether the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (30 May 1997) (the "UNCITRAL Model Law") as enacted under the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 ("IRDA") (the "Singapore Model Law") applies to real estate investment trusts ("REITs").

Voyager Digital Assets, Inc., a leading cryptocurrency brokerage and lending platform, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on July 5, 2022 in the Southern District of New York following a recent financial crisis impacting the crypto industry, which investors are calling the “crypto winter.” The filing was followed by the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Celsius Networks. While the situation is fluid, these two filings could be the beginning of a series of bankruptcies by major cryptocurrency companies.

Following a July 6, 2022 memorandum opinion from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, lenders and noteholders seeking to preserve the priority of their liens must make any desired subordination protections explicit in their security documents. Judge Craig T. Goldblatt’s decision in In re TPC Group Inc. upholds a prepetition “uptier” transaction and narrows the issues before the Bankruptcy Court regarding TPC Group Inc.’s desired entry into a debtor-in-possession loan with an ad hoc group of noteholders over the dissent of minority holders.

On 28 January 2022, the government of the Republic of South Africa promulgated the Financial Sector Laws Amendment Act, No. 23 of 2021 (the "FSLAA"). However, not all of its provisions have come into force. To date, sections 2, 3, 12 and 58 of the FSLAA have come into effect. The FSLAA aims to, amongst other things, introduce South Africa‘s first comprehensive deposit insurance scheme that will ensure that depositors are paid their funds when a bank fails.

Historically, the French restructuring system has always been perceived as a debtor-friendly system. In recent years, however, changes to the French legislation have favoured creditors' interests and the courts have favoured a number of lender-led restructures, enabling lenders to take control of the debtor from its existing shareholders.

On March 14, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the “Fifth Circuit”) revisited the issue of the rejection of filed-rate contracts in bankruptcy where such contracts are governed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”). The ruling marks the first time the Fifth Circuit has addressed this issue since its 2004 decision in In re Mirant Corp.¹ In Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v.

Lock-up agreements typically involve the company's creditors committing in advance to vote at the relevant class meeting in favour of the contemplated scheme. Lock-up agreements serve an important commercial purpose of either securing support or giving an indicator as to likely support for the scheme before the parties incur the time and expense in finalising the negotiation process of the scheme.

In order to encourage the promotion and specialized attention of corporate restructurings and insolvency proceedings, by agreement of the Plenary of the Federal Judiciary Council of Mexico, two district courts specialized in commercial bankruptcy matters (concursos mercantiles) have been created, located in Mexico City.

Courts in Commercial Bankruptcy Matters