A bill containing an entirely new Insolvency Code was presented to the House of Representatives on 20 April 2017. The need for a robust insolvency framework has received substantial attention due to the ongoing economic and financial crisis. Many European countries have recently modernised their insolvency legislation or are in the process of doing so.

Last year, we reported that Australia had proposed significant insolvency reforms that, in our view, are long overdue ("A Major Leap Forward for Australian Insolvency Laws").

In the framework of the digitization of the Belgian judiciary, a central Solvency Register (www.regsol.be) will be available as of 1 April 2017.

Henceforth, creditors must file their claims electronically. The register will be accessible - subject to different procedural formalities - to magistrates, including substitute judges, clerks of court and public prosecutors as well as bankrupt parties, their creditors and counsel.

In a judgment of 24 March 2017 (in Dutch), the Supreme Court of the Netherlands upheld the longstanding requirement that for a debtor to be declared bankrupt, there need to be at least two creditors.

On March 22, 2017, the Supreme Court, in Czyzewski et al., v. Jevic Holding Corp., et al., confirmed that the Bankruptcy Code does not permit “priority skipping” in Chapter 11 structured dismissals. In doing so, the Court held that, although the Code does not explicitly provide what, if any, priority rules apply to the distribution of estate assets in a Chapter 11 structured dismissal, “[a] distribution scheme in connection with the dismissal of a Chapter 11 case cannot, without the consent of the affected parties, deviate from the basic priority rules that apply under the . . .

On 18 January 2017, Regulation (EU) No 655/2014 (the "Regulation") will become fully applicable. It will henceforth be possible to obtain in any EU Member State, with the exception of Denmark and the United Kingdom, a preservation order for bank accounts of a debtor situated in another Member State.

The Regulation introduces at the European level a certain degree of transparency in terms of the debtor's assets.

Earlier intervention in case of distress to preserve value and save jobs. That is the goal of the proposed 'EU Business Restructuring Directive', which was presented yesterday by the European Commission and aims to ensure a minimum harmonization of restructuring procedures within the European Union.

Reversing the lower courts, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has today held that, under New York law (which governs 95% of all indentures), the early repayment of indenture notes in Chapter 11 is an optional redemption requiring the payment of make-whole notwithstanding the automatic acceleration of the notes due to the Chapter 11 filing. Delaware Trust Co. v. Energy Future Intermediate Holding Company LLC (In re Energy Future Holdings Corp.), Case No. 16-1251 (5th Cir. Nov. 17, 2016).

Under the Act of August 10 2016 modernising the Company Law 1915 (which entered into force on August 23 2016) Luxembourg law now officially recognises that companies can be wound up by means of a simplified procedure. This is an unquestionably useful tool which will further enhance Luxembourg's business-friendly reputation.

Thanks to the Act of 10 August 2016 modernizing Luxembourg company law, which entered into force on 23 August 2016 (the “New Act”), the Grand Duchy now officially recognizes the possibility for companies to be wound up by means of a simplified procedure. This is unquestionably a useful tool which will further enhance Luxembourg's business-friendly reputation.